Definition

Adjective: 1. Feeling or showing excessive pride or self-importance; inflated with a sense of one's own worth or status. This describes a person's temporary state of arrogance, often due to a specific success or compliment.

Usage

The adjective "swelled" is used to describe a person's character or demeanor when they are overly proud. It is typically used predictively (after a linking verb like was, felt, became) and is often followed by the preposition "with" to indicate the cause of the pride. * He was swelled with pride after winning the award. * Don't get swelled over a little bit of praise.

Examples

• After the positive review, the young chef felt swelled with confidence.
• Her head was swelled by all the flattery from her new admirers.
• Success had made him swelled and insufferable to his old friends.

Advanced Usage

• Swelled head: This is a common idiomatic noun phrase derived from the adjective. It means a state of excessive conceit.
  • All that fame gave him a real swelled head.

Variants and Related Words

• Swell (verb): To become larger or rounder, often due to pressure from within. This is the root verb from which the adjective "swelled" is derived in this context, metaphorically describing pride "inflating" a person.
  • His chest swelled with pride as he watched his daughter graduate.
• Swollen (adjective): The more common past participle of "swell," primarily used for physical enlargement (e.g., a swollen ankle). "Swelled" is the preferred form for this specific metaphorical meaning of pride.

Synonyms

• Arrogant
• Conceited
• Puffed up
• Vainglorious
• Full of oneself

Related Idioms

• Too big for one's britches/boots: Behaving as if one is more important than one actually is. This is a close synonym for having a "swelled head."
  • Ever since he got promoted, he's been too big for his britches.

Adjective

1. feeling self-importance
   • too big for his britches
   • had a swelled head
   • he was swelled with pride