bulge

Etymology

From Middle English bulge (“leather bag; hump”), from Old Northern French boulge (“leather bag”), from Late Latin bulga (“leather sack”), from Gaulish *bulga, *bulgos, from Proto-Celtic *bolgos (“sack, bag, stomach”). Cognate with bilge, belly, bellows, budget, French bouge, German Balg, etc. Doublet of budge, and from the same root as belly and bellows. See also budget.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbʌldʒ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbʌldʒ/, /ˈbʊldʒ/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ʌldʒ, -ʊldʒ

Noun

bulge (plural bulges)

1. An object which is sticking out from a surface; a swelling, protuberant part; a bending outward, especially when caused by pressure.

   a bulge in a wall

   There was a bulge in my pocket where I kept my wallet.

   • 2018 February, Robert Draper, “They are Watching You—and Everything Else on the Planet: Technology and Our Increasing Demand for Security have Put Us All under Surveillance. Is Privacy Becoming just a Memory?”, in National Geographic‎, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 June 2018:

     Haz sits in the trailer for 10 hours straight, eyes trained on the patrons. If he sees the makings of a drug deal or a fight, he notifies the club’s in-house security by walkie-talkie. It amazes him how indiscreet drug dealers can be—with the bulges in their socks and their melodramatic handovers—despite the presence of security guards.

   • 2024 February 21, “Network News: Safety changes recommended after train hits collapsed wall”, in RAIL, number 1003, page 19:

     The collapse happened within three weeks of an examining engineer observing that a bulge in the brickwork had increased since a previous inspection.

2. The bilge or protuberant part of a cask.
3. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A rounded fleshy mass, such as on a camel or zebu.

   Synonym: hump

4. (nautical) The bilge of a vessel.
6. (colloquial) The outline of male genitals visible through clothing.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:male crotch bulge

   • 2010, Micky Livingston, Seventeen Inches, →ISBN:

     Max looked down and sure as crap, his bulge was huge, and he started to stammer and stutter and without hesitation said, Holy crap Sandy, look at what you do to me.

   • 2012, D.H.Clark/I.B.Long, A Grasp for Life: The continuing story of Howard Walker, →ISBN, page 75:

     As his bulge begins to swell once again, her hand strokes the length of it through his pants.

   • 2017, Dee Dawning, Extramarital, →ISBN:

     He walked right up to me, the knife poking him in the abdomen, just above his bulge.

   • 2020 November 11, “What’s it like to be a post-orchiectomy non-op trans woman”, in elilla & friends’ very occasional blog thing‎, archived from the original on 3 September 2023:

     I'm wearing the same tight panties here as in the video clip above, with girldick nonerect, out to the front and pointing up, which is the position I prefer her to be. This absurdly tight skirt clearly shows too much bulge (along with hip bones, tummy, specks of dust etc). Personally I think bulges are super cute and I'm pissed off that I have to hide mine, but society feels otherwise so let’s try to offset it. (I mean, IRL I still won’t wear this skirt ever ofc 😇, but for science.)

7. (figurative) A sudden rise in value or quantity.
   • 1930, Stanford University, Wheat Studies of the Food Research Institute, volume 7, page 204:

     A second bulge in prices occurred during September 30 — October 9. The rise of prices up to October 3 was in part apparently a technical adjustment of the markets, a reaction to the preceding decline.

Verb

bulge (third-person singular simple present bulges, present participle bulging, simple past and past participle bulged)

1. (intransitive) To stick out from a surface without breaking it.

   He stood six feet tall, with muscular arms bulging out of his black T-shirt.

   • 1922, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob's Room:

     The wind actually stirred the cloth on the chest of drawers, and let in a little light, so that the sharp edge of the chest of drawers was visible, running straight up, until a white shape bulged out; and a silver streak showed in the looking-glass.

2. (intransitive) (of a container, etc.) To have the surface stretched by something pushing out; to swell.

   The submarine bulged because of the enormous air pressure inside.

   • 1977 December 10, Robin E. Smith, “Lesbian Version of 'Breaking Up Is Hard To Do'”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 23, page 12:

     You will return from work one day to an empty, echoing apartment, and the neighbors will tell you that B was last seen driving away in a bulging moving van.

3. (intransitive) To bilge, as a ship; to founder.
   • 1739, William Broome, “The Battle of the Gods and Titans”, in Poems on Several Occasions‎, London: Henry Lintot, page 253:

     Fatal to Man! at once all Ocean roars,
     And scattered navies bulge on distant shores.

References

• “bulge”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams

• Bugle, bugle