bulge
pronunciation
How to pronounce bulge in British English:
UK [bʌldʒ]
How to pronounce bulge in American English:
US [bʌldʒ]
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- Noun:
- something that bulges out or is protuberant or projects from a form
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- Verb:
- swell or protrude outwards
- bulge out; form a bulge outward, or be so full as to appear to bulge
- bulge outward
- cause to bulge or swell outwards
Word Origin
- bulge
- bulge: [13] Etymologically, bulge and budget are the same word, and indeed when English first acquired bulge it was as a noun, with, like budget, the sense ‘pouch’. It came from Old French bouge ‘leather bag’, a descendant of Latin bulga, which may have been of Gaulish origin (medieval Irish bolg ‘bag’ has been compared). The word’s present-day connotations of ‘swelling’ and ‘protruding’ presumably go back to an early association of ‘pouches’ with ‘swelling up when filled’ (compare the case of bellows and belly, which originally meant ‘bag’, and came from a source which meant ‘swell’), but curiously, apart from an isolated instance around 1400 when bulge is used for a ‘hump on someone’s back’, there is no evidence for this meaning in English before the 17th century.Additionally, from the 17th to the 19th centuries bulge was used for the ‘bottom of a ship’s hull’; it has now been superseded in this sense by bilge [15], which may well be a variant form.=> bilge, budget
- bulge (n.)
- c. 1200, "wallet, leather bag," from Old French bouge, boulge "wallet, pouch, leather bag," or directly from Latin bulga "leather sack" (see budget (n.)). Sense of "a swelling" is first recorded 1620s. Bilge (q.v.) might be a nautical variant.
- bulge (v.)
- "to protrude, swell out," 1670s, from bulge (n.). Related: Bulged; bulging.
Example
- 1. One reason for that is a demographic bulge that will soon subside .
- 2. Older stars reside in the bulge at the center of the galactic disk .
- 3. The ' picket fence ' therefore had a decided upward bulge in the middle .
- 4. Near the equator , the surface of a planet stays in a relatively flattened bulge under the pressure of centripetal forces .
- 5. The baby boomers were one such bulge .