swelly

English

Etymology

From swell +‎ -y.

Adjective

swelly (comparative more swelly, superlative most swelly)

1. (informal) Tending to bulge or swell.
   • 1914, Percival Christopher Wren, “The Sword and the Soul”, in Snake and Sword: A Novel, London, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co. […], →OCLC, part II (The Searing of a Soul), page 67:

     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

swelly (plural swellies)

1. (UK, dialect, mining, historical) An abnormal local thickening of a seam of coal.
   • 1863, A History of the Trade and Manufactures of the Tyne, Wear, and Tees:

     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, […]

   • 1870, George Clementson Greenwell, A Practical Treatise on Mine Engineering, page 120:

     Swellies are depressions of seams of coal: the floor and roof dipping into a trough and rising out of it in most cases to such a level as they would have been found to exist, had no disturbance taken place. In such cases the coal in the bottom of the trough or swelly is commonly of unusual thickness. An excellent example of a swelly is found at Seaton Delaval Colliery, in Northumberland.

Anagrams

• Wellsy