swelly

Etymology

From swell + -y.

swelly means tending to bulge or swell. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

adj

Tending to bulge or swell.“He had a nasty face though, the boy considered, and looked like a bounder because he had pimples, a swelly nose, a loud voice, and a swanky manner. The boy disapproved of him wholly.”

noun

An abnormal local thickening of a seam of coal.“Between the two extremes, the line of coast passes through a very great depression of the strata, designated locally a "swelly," and constituting that feature generally met with in coal fields which is properly termed a basin. This greatest depression takes place near the town of Sunderland, where the coal beds are at a depth of 300 fathoms, or 1,800 feet, below the level of the sea, […]”