Definition

1. Verb:
   • To swell up or expand abnormally: To increase in size or volume, often due to internal pressure, absorption of fluid, or abnormal growth.
   • To bubble up or rise upward: To move upward in bubbles or as if bubbling, often as a result of heating or chemical reaction; can be used metaphorically for ideas or emotions rising to prominence.

Examples of Usage

• Verb:
  • The injured tissue began to intumesce, requiring immediate medical attention.
  • When heated, the chemical mixture will intumesce and foam.
  • Feelings of anger intumesced within him as he listened to the unfair accusations.
  • In the swamp, gases intumesce from the decaying plant matter.

Advanced Usage

• Technical/Scientific Context: Commonly used in medical, chemical, and geological descriptions.
  • The polymer coating is designed to intumesce when exposed to extreme heat, forming a protective char layer.
• Metaphorical Use: Describing the emergence or rise of abstract things.
  • Throughout the 19th century, nationalist sentiments intumesced across the continent.

Variants and Related Words

• Intumescence (noun): The process or state of swelling up.
  • The doctor noted the intumescence around the wound.
• Intumescent (adjective): Having the property of swelling up, especially when heated.
  • The door was protected by an intumescent seal.

Synonyms

• Swell: To become larger or rounder in size.
• Expand: To increase in size, volume, or scope.
• Puff up: To swell or cause to swell.
• Bubble up: To rise to the surface in bubbles.

Related Phrasal Verbs/Constructions

(This word is typically not used in common phrasal verb constructions. Its usage is more formal and technical.)

Related Idioms

(There are no common idioms specifically using the word "intumesce.")

Verb

1. expand abnormally
   • The bellies of the starving children are swelling
2. move upwards in bubbles, as from the effect of heating; also used metaphorically
   • Gases bubbled up from the earth
   • Marx's ideas have bubbled up in many places in Latin America