The Oxford Thesaurus An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms - swell v.

1) Often, swell out or up. grow, increase, enlarge, expand, blow or puff up or out, distend, inflate, dilate, wax; mushroom, belly, balloon, bloat, bulge, billow, fatten, rise, tumefy: After cooking, the mixture swells to twice its original volume. 2 grow, increase, mushroom, snowball, accumulate, mount: Forgotten for years, her savings had swelled to become a small fortune. 3) increase, raise, augment, enlarge, boost, step up: Something must be done to swell the number of recruits. --n. 4) enlargement, broadening, increase, extension, spread, swelling, inflation, expansion, rise, surge: Have you noted the swell in popularity of health foods? 5 wave, surge, billow: As we rose to the top of each swell, we could see the shore. 6) fop, dandy, gay blade, fashion plate, Beau Brummell, Archaic coxcomb, Historical macaroni, Colloq clothes-horse, US fancy Dan, Slang nob, Archaic lounge lizard, Brit toff: He frequented the clubs populated by the other London swells. --adj. 7) smart, chic, stylish, fashionable, modish, grand, luxurious, de luxe, elegant, first-rate, first-class, top-grade, Colloq posh, swank, swanky, ritzy: Charlie always took Diane to the swellest places. 8) marvellous, thrilling, splendid, spectacular, first-rate, fine, Colloq great, super, terrific: I really had a swell time at your party.