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Glite Dictionary
💉 To swell up 🍕 To overeat
to engorge

to engorge

2 7.7
To become swollen as it fills with blood or other fluid
  • verb
  • /ɪnˈɡɔrdʒ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : hincharse
  • Within the capsule, there are many large engorged vessels.
  • engorged blood vessels
  • engorged blood
  • engorged ticks

Examples

  • Mieyo's face was white, his neck artery engorged, and his dark eyes full of fear.

  • Mieyo's face was white, his neck artery engorged, dark eyes full of fear.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • Within the capsule, there were several large engorged vessels.

    Academic text (2014)

  • Louis rises from him, drunkenly engorged with blood.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Her face was engorged and blackened with blood; the eyes and tongue protruded.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The officer's eyes began to crinkle, the mouth came open, neck veins engorged with disbelief.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • I'm talking about something like a billion bacteria at a time, and here we're looking at the slide of a flea engorged with blood after a meal.

  • That stage may lead to intense inflammatory trachoma, in which the conjunctiva becomes noticeably thickened, and small blood vessels within it become engorged, making it progressively redder.

    Academic text (2004)

  • During sexual arousal, various tissues in the body become engorged with blood, leading to swelling.

  • A fly, so engorged with blood it could barely stay aloft, struggled to fly away.

Synonyms

to swell
vsto engorge
117 3.2

To become larger often by pressure or by soaking in water

focuses on filling with blood or other fluid rather than general increase
to swell up
vsto engorge
28 3.9

Become larger and rounder because of liquid, injury, or illness

is specifically caused by filling with blood or another fluid
to bloat
vsto engorge
19 4.9

To become swollen because of gas or fluid

refers to enlargement by blood or other fluid rather than mainly gas
to tumefy
vsto engorge
  • Specialized
9.9

To grow bigger because of an injury or infection

describes increase in size due to filling with blood or fluid rather than tissue damage
to intumesce
vsto engorge
  • Specialized
9.9

To swell and become larger when heated or when it soaks up water

means filling with blood or fluid rather than heat or figurative growth

Antonyms

drain
44 1.4

The act of letting liquid flow out

to deflate
18 3.1

To let air out of something so it becomes smaller or loses its shape

How Swollen

to engorge
  • Specialized
2 7.7
to distend
12 8.2
to bulge
7 2.9
to swell
117 3.2
to fill
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

engorge infinitive
engorged past
engorged past participle
engorging present participle
engorges third person singular

Morphology

engorge = gorge (semi-transparent) = en + gorge

The form is clearly en- + gorge, but the medical/figurative sense 'to become swollen or filled (with blood or fluid)' extends the eating sense to other kinds of filling, which is less directly inferable for learners.

Etymology

Engorge comes from French en- 'in' and gorge 'throat', so it meant 'fill the throat' and so came to mean 'fill up'. That's why we use engorge to describe a body part that becomes swollen because it is filled with blood or another fluid.