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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Intumescence

Intumescence \In`tu*mes"cence\, n. [Cf. F. intumescence.]

  1. The act or process of swelling or enlarging; also, the state of being swollen; expansion; tumidity; especially, the swelling up of bodies under the action of heat.

    The intumescence of nations.
    --Johnson.

  2. Anything swollen or enlarged, as a tumor.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
intumescence

1650s, from French intumescence, from Latin intumescere (see intumescent).

Wiktionary
intumescence

n. 1 (context uncountable English) the process of swelling up or the condition of being swollen 2 (context countable English) an instance of such swelling

WordNet
intumescence
  1. n. swelling up with blood or other fluids (as with congestion) [syn: intumescency]

  2. the swelling of certain substances when they are heated (often accompanied by release of water) [syn: intumescency, swelling]

Usage examples of "intumescence".

In the northern hemisphere, or at any rate in the part occupied by British America and the north of the United States, this phenomenon is explained by the flat conformation of the territories bordering on the pole, and on which there is no intumescence of the soil to oppose any obstacle to the north winds.

In the Northern Hemisphere, or at any rate in the part occupied by British America and the north of the United States, this phenomenon is explained by the flat conformation of the territories bordering on the pole, and on which there is no intumescence of the soil to oppose any obstacle to the north winds.

Here, an intumescence which was to become a mountain, there, an abyss which was to be filled with an ocean or a sea.