tumid

American  

[too-mid, tyoo-] / ˈtu mɪd, ˈtyu- /

adjective

1. swollen, or affected with swelling, as a part of the body.

   Synonyms:

   turgid, distended

2. pompous or inflated, as language; turgid; bombastic.

   Synonyms:

   flatulent

3. seeming to swell; bulging.

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tumid British  

/ ˈtjuːmɪd /

adjective

1. (of an organ or part) enlarged or swollen

2. bulging or protuberant

3. pompous or fulsome in style

   tumid prose

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Other Word Forms

• tumidity noun
• tumidly adverb
• tumidness noun
• untumid adjective
• untumidity noun
• untumidly adverb
• untumidness noun

Etymology

Origin of tumid

1535–45; < Latin tumidus swollen, equivalent to tum ( ēre ) to swell + -idus -id ⁴

Explanation

To understand tumid, think about how your belly feels after Thanksgiving when you've just polished off that third helping of turkey with stuffing and Brussels sprouts. Gassy? Full? Distended? That's tumid for you. Tumid is also used by critics all over to describe their subjects (or rather "victims"). Any art form, particularly writing or acting, is ripe for description as tumid if it's overblown, bombastic and, well, gassy. Often used interchangeably with turgid in this sense.

Example Sentences

“I found her unfamiliar, rouged like a corpse, her tumid ankles peeking out, inflated and purple,” Rowbottom writes.

From New York Times • Jul. 18, 2018

The average mall moviegoer might be baffled or sedated by his films’ tumid, dreamlike melancholy.

From Time • Apr. 3, 2015

In Gaudi's hands, art nouveau took on a tumid, visceral energy that no other European architect could manage.

From Time Magazine Archive

Written in that vein, Love and Death in the American Novel is a tumid, quasi-psychoanalytic study in which Critic Fiedler tries to strip American literature down to a heavily annotated fig leaf.

From Time Magazine Archive

The wife, convinced that Bibi’s presence would infect the unborn child, began to wrap woolen shawls around her tumid belly.

From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri