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APG.American
Pronunciation Guide
HOW TO PRONOUNCE

swell

/swɛl/

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American Pronunciation Guide · 1:03
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What does swell mean?

verb

  1. To become larger, fuller, or rounder, or expand in size or shape, usually as a result of pressure from within.
  2. To cause to become bigger.
  3. To grow gradually in force or loudness.
More meanings (21)

verb

  1. To cause to grow gradually in force or loudness.
  2. To raise to arrogance; to puff up; to inflate.
  3. To be raised to arrogance.
  4. To be elated; to rise arrogantly.
  5. To be turgid, bombastic, or extravagant.
  6. To protuberate; to bulge out.

noun

  1. The act of swelling; increase in size.
  2. A bulge or protuberance.
  3. Increase of power in style, or of rhetorical force.
  4. A long series of ocean waves, generally produced by wind, and lasting after the wind has ceased.
  5. A gradual crescendo followed by diminuendo.
  6. A device for controlling the volume of a pipe organ.
  7. A division in a pipe organ, usually the largest enclosed division.
  8. A hillock or similar raised area of terrain.
  9. An upward protrusion of strata from whose central region the beds dip quaquaversally at a low angle.
  10. (informal) A person of high social standing; an important person.
  11. The front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the cantle on the other end.
  12. (dated, informal) A person who is stylish, fancy, or elegant.

adverb

  1. (informal) Very well.

adjective

  1. (dated) Fashionable, like a swell or dandy.
  2. (dated, slang) Excellent.
Wiktionary contributors

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/swɛl/

CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

Officers, as well as men, now mingle in the uproaring strife, and snatching the weapons of the slain, swell the horrid carnage.
M. L. (Mason Locke) WeemsThe Life of General Francis MarionProject Gutenberg ebook #846
At present if anyone who has left the Christian communion declares himself a believer in God, priest and parson swell with self-complacency.
H. G. (Herbert George) WellsGod, the Invisible KingProject Gutenberg ebook #1046
More book examples (3)
We plunged through our own jungle, crossed a low swell, traversed another jungle, and got in touch with the other two men.
Stewart Edward WhiteThe Land of FootprintsProject Gutenberg ebook #1378
A little swell might set in from time to time and cause some disagreeable bumping, but never anything to embarrass the vessel.
Roald AmundsenThe South Pole; an account of the Norwegian Antarctic expedition in the "Fram," 1910-1912 — Volume 1Translated by Arthur G. ChaterProject Gutenberg ebook #3414
We could see that the piece of ice we occupied had slewed and now presented its long axis towards the oncoming swell.
Ernest Henry, Sir ShackletonSouth: The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition, 1914-1917Project Gutenberg ebook #5199