Part 1043

11. To act in a pompous, ostentatious, or arrogant manner; to strut; to look big.

Here he comes, swelling like a turkey cock.

Shak.

Swell, v. t. 1. To increase the size, bulk, or dimensions of; to cause to rise, dilate, or increase; as, rains and dissolving snow swell the rivers in spring; immigration swells the population.

Keble.

2. To aggravate; to heighten.

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.

Swell, n. 1. The act of swelling.

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]