[ad. late L. tumiditās, f. tumidus TUMID.] The quality or condition of being tumid; swollenness. a. lit.; also concr. a swelling.
1721. Bailey, Tumidity, swelling.
1828. Macaulay, Dryden, Wks. 1898, VII. 152. No more than the tumidity of a muscle resembles the tumidity of a boil.
1873. A. W. Ward, trans. Curtius’ Hist. Greece, I. I. i. 24. Every muscle, every sinew, is developed into full play,… there is no trace of tumidity or of inert matter.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 476. Windy tumidities and occasionally phantom tumours arise.
b. fig. in reference to language: see TUMID 2.
1791. Boswell, Johnson, an. 1784 (1816), IV. 433. [A passage] blown up into such tumidity, as to be truly ludicrous.
1883. R. Brown, in Fortn. Rev., 1 Sept., 380. Their periods turned with Johnsonian tumidity.
1895. Q. Rev., Oct., 336. Æschylus, grandiose at times almost to tumidity.
