bulge

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C1 — Advanced

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

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

Etymology

From Middle English bulge (“leather bag; hump”), from Old Northern French boulge (“leather bag”), from Late Latin bulga (“leather sack”), from Gaulish *bulga, *bulgos, from Proto-Celtic *bolgos (“sack, bag, stomach”). Cognate with bilge, belly, bellows, budget, French bouge, German Balg, etc. Doublet of budge, and from the same root as belly and bellows. See also budget.

In classic literature

Synonyms

bump, hump, swelling, gibbosity, gibbousness, jut, prominence, protuberance, protrusion, extrusion, excrescence

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