Thursday, August 29, 2013

bulbous

bulbous \BUHL-buhs\, adjective:

1. bulb-shaped; bulging.
2. having or growing from bulbs.

Your man comes nearer, and now some hint of a bulbous enlargement at one end, and perhaps of lateral appendages and a bifurcation, begins to show itself.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Over the Teacups, 1890
Good things have been said about it by blue-nosed, bulbous-shoed old benchers, in select port-wine committee after dinner in hall.
-- Chalres Dickens, Bleak House, 1852-1853

Bulbous comes from the Latin literally meaning "bulb" or "onion." It entered English in the late 16th century.

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