adjective
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(of an organ or part) enlarged or swollen
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bulging or protuberant
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pompous or fulsome in style
tumid prose
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of tumid
1535–45; < Latin tumidus swollen, equivalent to tum ( ēre ) to swell + -idus -id 4
Explanation
To understand tumid, think about how your belly feels after Thanksgiving when you've just polished off that third helping of turkey with stuffing and Brussels sprouts. Gassy? Full? Distended? That's tumid for you. Tumid is also used by critics all over to describe their subjects (or rather "victims"). Any art form, particularly writing or acting, is ripe for description as tumid if it's overblown, bombastic and, well, gassy. Often used interchangeably with turgid in this sense.
Vocabulary lists containing tumid
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Dubliners
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The Suffix -id, Part 4
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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.
TS Eliot wrote of “faces / Distracted from distraction by distraction / Filled with fancies and empty of meaning / Tumid apathy with no concentration”.
From The Guardian • Apr. 8, 2019
Tumid, exaggerated, and monotonous as it often is, his style does affect one like wine.
From The Adventure of Living : a Subjective Autobiography by Strachey, John St. Loe
Tumid, tū′mid, adj. swollen or enlarged: inflated: falsely sublime: bombastic.—n.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various
Tumid blustering, with more or less of sincerity, which need not be entirely sincere, yet the sincerer the better, is like to go far.
From The French Revolution by Carlyle, Thomas
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.
