n. 1
A person who is stylish, fancy, or elegant.
n. 2
The front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the cantle on the other end.
v. 1
To become larger, fuller, or rounder, or expand in size or shape, usually as a result of pressure from within.
My ankles had swelled in the heat.
adj. 1
Fashionable, like a swell or dandy.

Related words

Word family: swellage swellfish swellhead swelltoad swelldom swell-headed swellish
Phrases: swell up swell out knee swell volume swell

Forms

Plural: swells → dandies, gallants, fashionables, sparks…
Past participle: swelled
e.g. swelled → tumefied, intumesced, tumesced, welled…

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

3 letters: old¹, fop¹
4 letters: well¹, grow¹, dude¹, rise¹, wave¹, fill¹, keen¹, fork¹, neat¹, beau¹, gurt
5 letters: great¹, blood¹, smart¹, blade¹, belly², spark¹, bully², surge¹, dandy², bulge¹, nifty², sheik¹, heave¹, ducky²
6 letters: expand², extend², superb², sheikh¹, trendy², groovy², bustle², peachy², pommel², dilate², masher, tumefy
7 letters: elegant³, enhance², balloon², gallant², enlarge², augment², amplify³, swagger², inflate², bluster², corking², coxcomb, distend², fribble
8 letters: increase², glorious³, cracking², splendid², smashing², mushroom², macaroni⁴, popinjay, embiggen
9 letters: wonderful³, exquisite³, aggravate³, intumesce
10 letters: aggrandize³, aggrandise
11 letters: fashionable⁴

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (belly² = 2 syllables).