ppl. a. [Weak pa. pple. of SWELL v.: see -ED1 Less frequent as an adj. in most senses than the strong pa. pple. SWOLLEN.] In senses of SWELL v., lit. and fig.; esp. in sense ‘morbidly enlarged, affected with tumor.’
1611. Shaks., Cymb., V. v. 162. Hearing vs praise our Loues of Italy For Beauty, that made barren the swell’d boast Of him that best could speake.
1670. Dryden, 1st Pt. Conq. Granada, II. i. The swell’d Ambition of his Mind.
1726. Dict. Rust., Swelled pizzle, a kind of hardness that proceeds from a Horse’s being bruised by Riding.
1733. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 251. He has so bad a cold, and swelled face.
1753. J. Bartlet, Gentl. Farriery, 296, margin. How swelled heels should be treated.
1842. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., V. 81/2. Swelled Friezes.—This invention bears a close resemblance to an article of dress said to have been used by our great grandmothers, called a bustle.
1869. Tanner, Clin. Med. (ed. 2), 312. The symptoms … are … fœtid breath, swelled belly, emaciated extremities.
1913. Dorland, Med. Dict., Roup, an infectious respiratory disease of poultry … sometimes called avian diphtheria and swelled head.
b. Swelled head (fig.): inordinate self-conceit, excessive pride or vanity (humorously regarded as a morbid affection). colloq. Hence swelled-headedness.
Cf. the earlier swell-head(ed s.v. SWELL-.
1891. Kipling, Light that Failed, iv. 69. Dick, it is of common report that you are suffering from swelled head.
1907. E. Reich (title), Germany’s Swelled Head. Ibid., 1. The Germans are afflicted with the severest attack of swelled-headedness known to modern history.
