- present participle of swell.
noun
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the act of expansion or inflation
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the state of being or becoming swollen
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a swollen or inflated part or area
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an abnormal enlargement of a bodily structure or part, esp as the result of injury
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of swelling
First recorded before 900; Middle English, Old English; swell + -ing 1
Vocabulary lists containing swelling
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Before the vaccine era, hundreds of children a year in the U.S. were either killed by measles or suffered swelling of the brain as a result of the disease.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
Both Super Micro and CoreWeave pointed to swelling backlogs reflecting ongoing customer demand for AI hardware.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
Growth since April’s weakness has been concentrated in the private sector, swelling by roughly 146,000 in three months.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
The yen had weakened because of the gap between Japanese and US interest rates, high oil prices and concerns about Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's spending plans further swelling Japan's enormous debts.
From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026
I looked down at my feet: my legs and ankles were swelling grotesquely.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
I've been hospitalised with swellings on my neck and throat that have affected my ability to breathe.
From BBC ● Feb. 1, 2024
Many infected rabbits display a strange form of myxomatosis, developing massive swellings on their eyes and ears.
From New York Times ● Jun. 20, 2022
“One female refugee got swellings on her arms and legs and is unable to stand or walk, while one man, maybe because they’ve been at sea for too long, is a bit malnourished,” Nurul said.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 6, 2022
Clubroot produces swellings on canola’s roots, choking them of nutrients and stunting growth of the plant’s valuable seeds, but the disease does not affect the quality of canola oil and meal.
From Reuters ● Feb. 22, 2018
The herbicide 2,4-D has also produced tumorlike swellings in treated plants.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
