the verb-stem in combination (in some cases also referable to the sb.): swell-fish, a fish that inflates itself by swallowing air, also called puffer or puff-fish (see PUFF sb. 9 b); swell-front U.S., a bow-front of a house, i.e., one segmentally curved on plan (see BOW sb.1 12 a); transf. a house having such a front; swell-head colloq. = swelled head (see SWELLED b); also, a person affected with ‘swelled head’; swell-headed a. colloq., affected with ‘swelled head’; swell-rule Printing (RULE sb. 22), a ‘rule’ or dash of swelling (usually diamond) form in the middle (Jacobi, Printers’ Voc., 1888); swell-shark, (a) a small shark, Scyllium ventricosum, of the Pacific coast of America; (b) a Californian shark, Catulus uter, which when caught inflates itself by swallowing air; swell-work, work characterized by enlargement or protuberance in certain parts designed for ornament.
1839. Storer, in Boston Jrnl. Nat. Hist., II. 513. Tetraodon turgidus, Mitchell. The *Swell Fish. Puffer.
1860. O. W. Holmes, Elsie V., xxxii. (1891), 484. I was walking with a young friend along by the *swell-fronts and south-exposures.
1872. Howells, Wedd. Journ. (1892), 67. A humble three-story swell-front up at the South End.
1884. St. James’s Gaz., 10 May, 5/1. ‘Mugwump’ … is ‘synonymous with the New York term “big bug,” or the Washington expression *“swellhead.”’
1901. G. Douglas, House w. Green Shutters, 214. Lord, but young Gourlay was the fine fellow! Symptoms of swell-head set in with alarming rapidity.
1817. Cobbett, Wks., XXXII. 43. The upstart, big-bellied, *swell-headed farmer can bluster and bully … about Sinecures.
1906. Daily Chron., 11 May, 7/3. Gangs or swell-headed agents in plain clothes … persecuting inoffensive citizens.
1897. Cent. Dict., s.v. Scyllium, S. ventricosum is the *swell-shark, a small voracious species found on the Pacific coast from California to Chili.
1833. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 198. The various descriptions of reeded and other *swell-work, exhibited by some superb brass fenders.
