ppl. a. [f. prec.]
† 1. Heaped together; accumulated.
1578. Banister, Hist. Man, Ep. Ded. 1. To lye waste, and voyde, as a rude congested heape.
1651. Ogilby, Æsop (1665), 164. On watry Mountains and congested Floods.
2. Med. Overcharged with an unnatural accumulation of blood; affected with congestion.
Cf. quot. 1758 in CONGEST v. 1.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xx. 260. Their eyes being so congested by the glare of the sun that they are … nearly blind.
1865. R. Hunter, in Morn. Star, 23 Feb. We physicians say, the lung is congested: by which we mean that the vessels are full almost to bursting.
1877. Roberts, Handbk. Med., I. 26. The functions of a congested organ are often materially and seriously interfered with.
b. transf. Filled up by an obstructive accumulation; overcrowded.
1862. B. Taylor, Home & Abr., Ser. II. v. 347. While the atmosphere is heavy, portentous, congested (to borrow a medical word, which expresses the feeling better than any other).
1891. Newspaper. The effects of the congested state of the goods traffic are now being felt in almost every industry.—A scheme for relieving the congested districts in Ireland by means of emigration.
3. Bot. ‘Crowded very closely’ (Treas. Bot., 1866).
