In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.
BULGE
bulge, bump, hump, swelling, gibbosity, gibbousness, jut, prominence, protuberance, protrusion, extrusion, excrescence
(noun) something that bulges out or is protuberant or projects from its surroundings; “the gun in his pocket made an obvious bulge”; “the hump of a camel”; “he stood on the rocky prominence”; “the occipital protuberance was well developed”; “the bony excrescence between its horns”
bulge, bulk
(verb) cause to bulge or swell outwards
bulge, pouch, protrude
(verb) swell or protrude outwards; “His stomach bulged after the huge meal”
start, protrude, pop, pop out, bulge, bulge out, bug out, come out
(verb) bulge outward; “His eyes popped”
bulge, bag
(verb) bulge out; form a bulge outward, or be so full as to appear to bulge
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
bulge (plural bulges)
Something sticking out from a surface; a swelling, protuberant part; a bending outward, especially when caused by pressure.
The bilge or protuberant part of a cask.
(nautical) The bilge of a vessel.
(colloquial) The outline of male genitals visible through clothing.
(figurative) A sudden rise in value or quantity.
Verb
bulge (third-person singular simple present bulges, present participle bulging, simple past and past participle bulged)
(intransitive) To stick out from (a surface).
(intransitive) To bilge, as a ship; to founder.
Anagrams
• bugle
Source: Wiktionary
Bulge, n. Etym: [OE. bulge a swelling; cf. AS. belgan to swell, OSw. bulgja, Icel. bolginn swollen, OHG. belgan to swell, G. bulge leathern sack, Skr. b to be large, strong; the root meaning to swell. Cf. Bilge, Belly, Billow, Bouge, n.]
1. The bilge or protuberant part of a cask.
2. A swelling, protuberant part; a bending outward, esp. when caused by pressure; as, a bulge in a wall.
3. (Naut.)
Definition: The bilge of a vessel. See Bilge, 2. Bulge ways. (Naut.) See Bilge ways.
Bulge, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Bulged (; p. pr. & vb.n. Bulging.]
1. To swell or jut out; to bend outward, as a wall when it yields to pressure; to be protuberant; as, the wall bulges.
2. To bilge, as a ship; to founder. And scattered navies bulge on distant shores. Broome.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
24 May 2025
EARTHSHAKING
(adjective) sufficiently significant to affect the whole world; “earthshaking proposals”; “the contest was no world-shaking affair”; “the conversation...could hardly be called world-shattering”
Coffee Trivia
