tumescent
adjUS /tuˈmɛsənt/
Etymology From Latin tumēscēns (“swelling, bloating”).
1
Swollen or distended with fluid, as of erectile tissue.
2
Inflated or overblown.
- I think that in Gloria MacMillan uses this tumescent language for a comparatively modest purpose — to show how it was between men and women in the war — and the language inflates and perverts his meaning unconscionably.1982, Arlene Croce, Going to the Dance, page 395:
- Synonyms
- tumid, turgescent, turgid
- Derived terms
- detumescent, nontumescent, tumescently