ppl. a. Forms: see SWELL v. [Strong pa. pple. of SWELL v.]
1. Increased in bulk, as by internal pressure; distended, filled out; esp. morbidly enlarged, affected with tumor; also, of a distended form, bulging, protuberant.
c. 1325. Song of Merci, 162, in E. E. P. (1862), 123. We loue so slouþe, and harlotrie, We slepe a[s] swolle swyn in lake.
1538. Elyot, Tumidus,… .swollen.
1558. Warde, trans. Alexis’ Secr., 23 b. To heale swollen knees or legges.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. i. 13. Her swollen eyes were much disfigured.
1598. Bp. Hall, Sat., IV. i. 69. His pouting checks puff vp aboue his brow Like a swolne Toad toucht with the Spiders blow.
1683. Prior, Pastoral, 14. Nor let those sighs from your swoln bosom rise.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 4/2. Æolus … an ancient Man with swolne Blub Cheeks.
1742. Collins, Oriental Eclogues, ii. 63. The silent asp shall creep … Or some swoln serpent twist his scales around.
1816. Byron, Prisoner of Chillon, viii. I’ve seen it on the breaking ocean Strive with a swoln convulsive motion.
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nick., xix. The swollen veins stood out like sinews on Ralph’s forehead.
1839. Fr. A. Kemble, Resid. Georgia (1863), 61. Upon this great tray are piled the swollen … cotton bags.
1884. Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner., 519. Plants which, in their wild form, have thin roots, but in many cultivated varieties are provided with fleshy swollen roots.
1890. Retrospect Med., CII. 326. The swollen, vascular state of the tongue.
b. Of a body of water: cf. SWELL v. 1 b, 2 b, 3 b.
1652. Mayne, trans. Donne’s Epigrams, lvi. 9. Here the swoln sea views the inferiour ground.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, l. The swollen torrents that descend from the heights.
1856. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., V. xvi. § 20. Cliffs … of which every thunder-shower dissolves tons in the swoln blackness of torrents.
1913. G. M. Trevelyan, J. Bright, Introd. 1. His oncoming was as the surge of the full swollen tide, not of the sea in storm.
c. Increased in amount or degree.
a. 1631. Donne, Elegies, xi[i]. 110. At thy lives last moment, May thy swolne sinnes themselves to the present.
1871. R. H. Hutton, Ess. (1877), I. 61. The inroads of unjust and swollen powers.
1911. G. Elliot Smith, Anc. Egyptians, ii. 15. The writings that … fill the swollen shelves of our libraries.
2. fig. a. Said of a feeling or mental state such as causes a sense of distension or expansion, or of a person affected with such a feeling, etc.; esp. inflated with pride, puffed up.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Clerk’s T., 894. With humble herte and glad visage, Nat with no swollen thoght in hire corage.
1412–20. Lydg., Chron. Troy, IV. 4889. Eneas Of Ire & rancour so [a]meved was Ageyn þe kyng, with a swollen herte.
1592. Soliman & Pers., III. ii. 15. And here my swolne harts greef doth stay my tongue.
1625. J. Robinson, Observations, xxii. 130. Of them I have known some so swoln in the mouth, as they have thought, that if they gave their Servant a better name, then Sirra, or Boy, they lost of their authoritie.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, VI. 251. Swoln with Applause.
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nick., xii. His swollen heart almost bursting.
b. Of language: Turgid, inflated, bombastic.
1605. 1st Pt. Jeronimo, I. i. 56. Let him … Stretch his mouth wider with big swolne phrases.
1783. Blair, Lect., xviii. (1812), II. 27. The swoln imagery.
a. 1834. Coleridge, Shaks. Notes (1849), 19. Swoln panegyrics.
3. Comb., as swollen-cheeked, -faced, etc., adjs.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Carrillado, *swolen cheeked.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. I. vii. A man bodily and mentally swoln-cheeked.
a. 1618. Sylvester, trans. Dicher’s Lat. Verses, Wks. (Grosart), II. 337/2. The boy’strous billows Of *swolne fac’t Auster.
1647. H. More, Min. Poems, Exorcismus, iv. Those Eastern spatterd lights … And that *swoln-glowing ball.
