tu·mid

(to͞o′mĭd, tyo͞o′-)

adj.

1. Swollen; distended. Used of a body part or organ.

2. Of a bulging shape; protuberant.

3. Overblown; bombastic: tumid political prose.

[Latin tumidus, from tumēre, to swell; see teuə- in Indo-European roots.]

tu·mid′i·ty n.

tu′mid·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

tumidity - slight swelling of an organ or part

tumidness

puffiness, swelling, lump - an abnormal protuberance or localized enlargement

tumescence - tumidity resulting from the presence of blood or other fluid in the tissues

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

In their unbridled eloquence these pieces may, at times, approach a certain tumidity, as in the lines to the queen (ll.

The twelfth-century Story of Daniel for Performance by Hilarius: an introduction, translation, and commentary

Chapter Number * 1-2 Introduction [missing text] * 3-5 Instances of False Sublimity: Tumidity, Puerility, "Parenthyrsus" 6-7 Definition of Sublimity 8 Sources of True Sublimity A.

Frye and Longinus

To take an obvious rhetorical excess, Walpole indulges in 'tasteless tumidity' (78) to enhance a recurring supernatural element, the physical proportions of his aggrieved ghost, Alfonso, with his giant helmet and grotesquely engorged armoured limbs.

Sublime drag: supernatural masculinity in Gothic fiction

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