Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A protruding part; an outward curve or swelling.
  • noun Nautical A bilge.
  • noun A sudden, usually temporary increase in number or quantity.
  • intransitive verb To swell, protrude, or curve outward.
  • intransitive verb To cause to bulge.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A rounded protuberance; a swelling; a swell; a hump.
  • noun The swirl made by a salmon rising to the surface.
  • To swell out; be protuberant.
  • To bilge, as a ship.
  • noun A rapid rise in price, of stock, grain, cotton, or the like, followed by an equally rapid fall, owing to some temporary causes. The name has reference to the curve in a diagram of prices.
  • To cause to swell out and become protuberant.
  • To bilge or stave in the bottom of, as a ship.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The bilge or protuberant part of a cask.
  • noun A swelling, protuberant part; a bending outward, esp. when caused by pressure.
  • noun (Naut.) The bilge of a vessel. See Bilge, 2.
  • noun (Naut.) See Bilge ways.
  • intransitive verb To swell or jut out; to bend outward, as a wall when it yields to pressure; to be protuberant.
  • intransitive verb To bilge, as a ship; to founder.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Something sticking out from a surface.
  • verb intransitive To stick out from (a surface).
  • verb intransitive To bilge, as a ship; to founder.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun something that bulges out or is protuberant or projects from its surroundings
  • verb bulge outward
  • verb bulge out; form a bulge outward, or be so full as to appear to bulge
  • verb swell or protrude outwards
  • verb cause to bulge or swell outwards

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, pouch, from Old French bulge, bouge, from Latin bulga, bag, of Celtic origin; see bhelgh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin bulga "leather bag". Cognates includes bilge, belly, bellows, budget, French bouge, German Balg, etc.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word bulge.

Examples

  • To generate the resultant pattern, a 3-dimensional bulge is formed around the tree, and its distorted wire-grid projected onto a 2-dimensional surface.

    Optical Illusion Flower Vase 2009

  • To generate the resultant pattern, a 3-dimensional bulge is formed around the tree, and its distorted wire-grid projected onto a 2-dimensional surface.

    Boing Boing 2009

  • Diet this, diet that and the merry-go-round of the bulge is nothing less or more than a way of life ridden with guilt, should I even think of eating a piece of candy.

    Is traditional Mexican cuisine bad for you? 2008

  • Diet this, diet that and the merry-go-round of the bulge is nothing less or more than a way of life ridden with guilt, should I even think of eating a piece of candy.

    Is traditional Mexican cuisine bad for you? 2008

  • Diet this, diet that and the merry-go-round of the bulge is nothing less or more than a way of life ridden with guilt, should I even think of eating a piece of candy.

    Is traditional Mexican cuisine bad for you? 2008

  • Diet this, diet that and the merry-go-round of the bulge is nothing less or more than a way of life ridden with guilt, should I even think of eating a piece of candy.

    Is traditional Mexican cuisine bad for you? 2008

  • Diet this, diet that and the merry-go-round of the bulge is nothing less or more than a way of life ridden with guilt, should I even think of eating a piece of candy.

    Is traditional Mexican cuisine bad for you? 2008

  • Diet this, diet that and the merry-go-round of the bulge is nothing less or more than a way of life ridden with guilt, should I even think of eating a piece of candy.

    Is traditional Mexican cuisine bad for you? 2008

  • Diet this, diet that and the merry-go-round of the bulge is nothing less or more than a way of life ridden with guilt, should I even think of eating a piece of candy.

    Is traditional Mexican cuisine bad for you? 2008

  • Diet this, diet that and the merry-go-round of the bulge is nothing less or more than a way of life ridden with guilt, should I even think of eating a piece of candy.

    Is traditional Mexican cuisine bad for you? 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "eyes bulge"

    January 10, 2009

  • Latin borrowing from Celtic, nice.

    March 25, 2019