Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Somewhat tumid.
  • adjective Becoming swollen; swelling.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Swelling; tumefying; forming into a tumor; intumescent.
  • In botany, slightly tumid or swollen.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Slightly tumid; swollen, as certain moss capsules.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective swollen or distended with fluid, as of erectile tissue.
  • adjective inflated or overblown

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective abnormally distended especially by fluids or gas

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin tumēscēns, tumēscent-, present participle of tumēscere, to begin to swell, inchoative of tumēre, to swell; see teuə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin tumēscēns ("swelling, bloating")

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Examples

Comments

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  • Certainly a candidate for reesetee's list "Worse Than They Sound," if it isn't already there in some variant (such as tumescence).

    March 6, 2008