SWELL
Swell, n.
1. The act of swelling.
2. Gradual increase. Specifically: (a) Increase or augmentation in bulk; protuberance. (b) Increase in height; elevation; rise. Little River affords navigation during a swell to within three miles of the Miami. Jefferson.
(c) Increase of force, intensity, or volume of sound. Music arose with its voluptuous swell. Byron.
(d) Increase of power in style, or of rhetorical force. The swell and subsidence of his periods. Landor.
3. A gradual ascent, or rounded elevation, of land; as, an extensive plain abounding with little swells.
4. A wave, or billow; especially, a succession of large waves; the roll of the sea after a storm; as, a heavy swell sets into the harbor. The swell Of the long waves that roll in yonder bay. Tennyson. The gigantic swells and billows of the snow. Hawthorne.
5. (Mus.)
Defn: A gradual increase and decrease of the volume of sound; the crescendo and diminuendo combined; — generally indicated by the sign.
6. A showy, dashing person; a dandy. [Slang] Ground swell. See under Ground. — Organ swell (Mus.), a certain number of pipes inclosed in a box, the uncovering of which by means of a pedal produces increased sound. — Swell shark (Zoöl.), a small shark (Scyllium ventricosum) of the west coast of North America, which takes in air when caught, and swells up like a swellfish.