Becoming enlarged or swollen; tending to swell.
The balloon felt heavy in her hand. She pulled the string, and it grew larger, more tumescent, until she worried it might pop. It swelled with air, a round, growing orb that took up more space with every puff.
The baker watched the dough, his brow furrowed. He'd fed it just enough yeast. Now, it was tumescent, slowly puffing up, threatening to overflow the bowl. He needed to get it in the oven before it became a sticky mess.
The fungal bloom's outer layer felt strangely tumescent, a subtle pulsing under the thin, damp membrane. It had been dry for weeks, so this sudden swelling was a desperate, hopeful sign of life, the soft tissue pushing outward against its fragile casing.
My belly felt tumescent after I ate the whole pizza. It was so big and round, I looked like a blimp! I waddled to the couch, feeling like a giant, stuffed sausage about to burst.
My pet rock, Bartholomew, grew quite tumescent after his spa day. He soaked in fizzy bath bombs, his normally smooth surface becoming enlarged and swollen. Now, Bartholomew is a delightfully puffy pebble, happily absorbing all the compliments.
The tiny bud on the rose bush began to look promising, its green casing growing increasingly tumescent. A sense of hopeful anticipation filled the gardener as he watched it swell, knowing soon a vibrant bloom would emerge.
The old pump groaned, its metal parts stiff and reluctant. With each turn, the stagnant water in the cistern began to swell, a low, tumescent mass inching upwards, threatening to overflow the cracked concrete lip. The farmer watched, his brow furrowed with anxious anticipation.
The air, usually thin and biting, began to feel thick, almost viscous. A strange, tumescent warmth spread through the subterranean caverns, pressing against the walls. The miners paused, their pickaxes hanging mid-swing, as the rock itself seemed to breathe and expand around them.
Barnaby the bulldog's nose, after sniffing a particularly questionable puddle, began to look suspiciously tumescent. His usual snuffling turned into a wheezing trumpet solo as his snout expanded, making him resemble a bewildered, snorting balloon.
The rogue sourdough starter, Bartholomew, had gone too far this time. After weeks of neglect and a questionable banana peel snack, Bartholomew was tumescent, threatening to engulf the entire kitchen counter with his yeasty, bubbly expansion. The oven mitts were already strained.
His excitement grew, a tumescent feeling swelling in his chest as the news finally arrived. The long wait had made him anxious, but now, a triumphant energy began to expand within him. He felt a palpable surge of anticipation.
The bog water rose, a slow, determined tide. Each pulse of the unseen pump pushed more murky fluid into the containment dike. We watched the surrounding marshland, the earth itself becoming tumescent, pushing outward against the stressed metal barriers. Soon, the overflow would begin.
The rare, bioluminescent fungi pulsed faintly in the cave's damp air. As moisture condensed on their caps, they grew noticeably tumescent, their delicate structures swelling with an internal, watery pressure, a silent, slow expansion.
The particularly ambitious balloon animal craftsman found his latex creations becoming alarmingly tumescent. His tiny chihuahua, usually quite placid, was now a surprisingly tumescent, quivering sphere of fluff. He worried his artistic vision might cause a rather boisterous, squeaky explosion.
The ancient, pickled gnome's pet mushroom, Bartholomew, began to look decidedly tumescent after its nightly dousing with fizzy swamp water. It puffed up like a rogue sourdough starter, threatening to engulf the gnome's prized collection of bottle caps and tiny, disapproving thimbles.
He watched the storm clouds gather, their bruised edges growing tumescent, promising a deluge. A knot of anxiety, tumescent with unspoken fear, tightened in his chest as the sky darkened and the air grew thick with anticipation.
The alchemist watched, breath held, as the primordial ooze began a slow, tumescent expansion within the crucible. A faint luminescence emanated from its core, a nascent energy pulsing with the promise of unimagined transmutations.
The elder artisan, inspecting the burgeoning fungal growth on his meticulously carved reliquary, observed the pustules becoming increasingly tumescent. Each day, the velvety caps widened, their forms swelling with an unnerving, silent vitality, a visible manifestation of the hidden corruption seeping into the sacred wood.
The prodigious pumpkin, having absorbed an unusual amount of artisanal kombucha, was becoming quite tumescent. Its cerulean rind strained against its ever-increasing girth, a veritable leviathan of gourds, threatening to burst with effervescent, fermented splendor. One suspected it would soon attain a truly cosmic proportion.
The particularly fecund puffball, hitherto quiescent, began its inevitable, tumescent expansion, a grotesque globular genesis. Its mycelial underpinnings, a veritable labyrinth of gastronomic speculation, promised a delightful, albeit visually alarming, proliferation of fungal flesh, destined for a singularly pungent gustatory escapade.
Advanced — Less frequent words that stretch an upper-level vocabulary.