bulge

Pluralbulges

Formsbulges, bulging, bulged

1. 1
   stick outnouncountable

   Something that sticks out from a surface, such as a swelling or an outward bend, especially one caused by pressure.

   Engineers closed the road after spotting a widening bulge in the old retaining wall.

   The mechanic replaced the tire after finding a bulge in its sidewall.

   Similarswelling, bump, protrusion, lump, protuberance

   Oppositedent

   Note

   Middle English bulge was a leather bag or a hump, from a Celtic word for a sack or stomach; belly, bellows, bilge and budget are its relatives, and the picture of a full sack still holds. It usually takes in for where the swelling is (a bulge in the brickwork, a bulge in a pocket), and in a wall or a tire it is a warning sign that pressure is winning.

2. 2
   stick outverbintransitive

   To project outward from a surface without breaking through it.

   Thick veins bulge along the climber's forearms as she hangs from the ledge.

   The old plaster bulged out between the wooden beams of the ceiling.

   Similarprotrude, swell, project

   Note

   The subject is whatever pushes outward: arms bulge out of a T-shirt, plaster bulges out between beams. With a container that swells the subject is the thing stretched instead, the can or the suitcase. Out often follows, and Virginia Woolf writes bulged out in Jacob's Room (1922) for a white shape emerging in a dim room. As an adjective, bulging suits arms and veins.

3. 3
   swell (container)verbintransitive

   Of a container or similar thing, to swell outward because something inside is pushing against its surface.

   Throw away any can of food that has started to bulge at the ends.

   By the end of the trip, our suitcases bulged with souvenirs.

   Similarswell, expand, balloon

   Note

   What fills the container comes after with: suitcases bulge with souvenirs, pockets with coins. Before a noun the participle does the job alone, so a bulging moving van is one crammed to the doors. Swell and belly are near neighbors, but bulge is the one that suggests strain, as in a can whose ends have started to push outward.

4. 4
   sudden risenounfigurativelycountable

   A sudden rise in a value or a quantity, such as prices or numbers.

   Analysts traced the bulge in housing prices to a shortage of new homes.

   A postwar bulge in births crowded the schools a few years later.

   Similarsurge, spike, rise, jump, boom

   Oppositedip, drop

   Note

   The picture is a line on a chart that swells upward and then settles back, so a bulge is a rise with an end to it rather than a steady climb. Economists were already writing of a second bulge in wheat prices in 1930. Like the physical sense, it takes in: a bulge in prices, a bulge in births, a bulge in enrollment.

5. 5
   in tight clothesnouncolloquialcountable

   The outline of the penis as it shows through clothing.

   Similarpackage, basket

6. 6
   barrel middlenouncountable

   The rounded, outward-curving middle part of a cask, also called its bilge.

   The cooper drove the iron hoops down until they gripped the cask firmly around its bulge.

   Laid on its side, the cask rested on its bulge and could be turned with one hand.

   Similarbilge

7. 7
   ship bottomnouncountable

   The lowest part of the hull of a ship or boat, also called the bilge.

   Similarbilge

   Note

   Bilge is the name most sailors use for this part of a hull, and bulge is its close relative, grown from the same Celtic sack: water pools in the bulge, and rotten planks along it are replaced. The pair carries over to the middle of a cask, which is also called its bilge, because barrel and hull share the same swelling curve.

8. 8
   sink (ship)verbintransitive

   Of a ship, to have its hull broken open at the bottom so that it fills with water and sinks.

   Fatal to Man! at once all Ocean roars, And scattered navies bulge on distant shores.

   1739, William Broome, “The Battle of the Gods and Titans”

   Note

   The verb belongs with the ship's bottom: a ship that bulges has been stove in there and is going down. William Broome's poem The Battle of the Gods and Titans pictures scattered navies that bulge on distant shores as the whole ocean roars. The swelling picture has gone here; what remains is damage at the bottom of the hull, and founder is the plainer word for the result.

Showing meanings only. Show all 8