[The Church] swells her high, heart-cheering tone.
--Keble.
It is low ebb with his accuser when such
peccadilloes are put to swell the charge.
--Atterbury.
3. To raise to arrogance; to puff up; to inflate; as, to be
swelled with pride or haughtiness.
4. (Mus.) To augment gradually in force or loudness, as the
sound of a note.
2. To increase in size or extent by any addition; to increase
in volume or force; as, a river swells, and overflows its
banks; sounds swell or diminish.
3. To rise or be driven into waves or billows; to heave; as,
in tempest, the ocean swells into waves.
4. To be puffed up or bloated; as, to swell with pride.
You swell at the tartan, as the bull is said to do
at scarlet. --Sir W.
Scott.
5. To be inflated; to belly; as, the sails swell.
6. To be turgid, bombastic, or extravagant; as, swelling
words; a swelling style.
7. To protuberate; to bulge out; as, a cask swells in the
middle.
8. To be elated; to rise arrogantly.
Your equal mind yet swells not into state. --Dryden.
9. To grow upon the view; to become larger; to expand.
``Monarchs to behold the swelling scene!'' --Shak.
10. To become larger in amount; as, many little debts added,
swell to a great amount.
11. To act in a pompous, ostentatious, or arrogant manner; to
strut; to look big.
Here he comes, swelling like a turkey cock. --Shak.
2. Gradual increase. Specifically:
(a) Increase or augmentation in bulk; protuberance.
(b) Increase in height; elevation; rise.
Little River affords navigation during a swell
to within three miles of the Miami. --Jefferson.
(c) Increase of force, intensity, or volume of sound.
Music arose with its voluptuous swell. --Byron.
(d) Increase of power in style, or of rhetorical force.
The swell and subsidence of his periods.
--Landor.
3. A gradual ascent, or rounded elevation, of land; as, an
extensive plain abounding with little swells.
4. A wave, or billow; especially, a succession of large
waves; the roll of the sea after a storm; as, a heavy
swell sets into the harbor.
The swell Of the long waves that roll in yonder bay.
--Tennyson.
The gigantic swells and billows of the snow.
--Hawthorne.
5. (Mus.) A gradual increase and decrease of the volume of
sound; the crescendo and diminuendo combined; -- generally
indicated by the sign.
6. A showy, dashing person; a dandy. [Slang]
{Ground swell}. See under {Ground}.
{Organ swell} (Mus.), a certain number of pipes inclosed in a
box, the uncovering of which by means of a pedal produces
increased sound.
{Swell shark} (Zo["o]l.), a small shark ({Scyllium
ventricosum}) of the west coast of North America, which
takes in air when caught, and swells up like a swellfish.
{Swell mob}. See under {Mob}. [Slang]