- bulge
- bulge vb Bulge, jut, stick out, protuberate, protrude, project, overhang, beetle mean to extend outward beyond the usual and normal line.Bulge suggests a swelling out in an excessive or abnormal fashion; it may be used when the impression to be given is that there is an imperfection, a defect, or a cause of strain that explains the swelling{
the wall bulged in the center
}{above her boots ... the calves bulged suddenly out— Bennett
}{good little Fyne's eyes bulged with solemn horror— Conrad
}Jut (often with out) and stick out do not imply abnormality as a rule but construction, formation, or position that permits a thing to extend outside or beyond the flat line of a surface{rocks jutting from the water
}{the nun took Father Latour to a window that jutted out and looked up the narrow street— Cather
}{one building stuck out from the straight line made by the rest
}Protuberate, which is currently much less used than the corresponding adjective protuberant and the corresponding noun protuberance, implies a swelling or sticking outward (as in a rounded or angular prominence); it does not differ greatly from bulge, but it often carries less implication of something radically wrong{the point of his elbows markedly protuberated
}Protude implies a thrusting forth especially in an unexpected place; it applies especially to something that does not seem to belong or that sticks out obviously{whenever a small tuft of heather . . . protruded itself through the grass . . . and entangled her feet— Hardy
}{through the leaves ... a slender dead stem protruded, and from a twig at its summit depended a broken spider's web— Hudson
}{the great rollers piled up on the sandy beach where great boulders protruded here and there— Heiser
}In literal use project is more often intransitive, though in extended uses it is chiefly transitive. Intransitively it may mean to jut out or to protrude{the eaves usually project far beyond the roof in semitropical and tropical climates
}{this great rimrock, which projected out over the erosions like a granite shelf— Cather
}In its transitive use, however, it carries implications of throwing or casting forward both in literal use{project a shadow
}{project the colors from a prism upon a wall
}and especially in extended use when it refers to thoughts, conceptions, or feelings; thus, one projects not only his ideas or thoughts but his powers (as of imagination or comprehension), as if by throwing them out, so that they reach their goal effectively{one couldn't formulate and express one's ideas and project them into that spate of charming, inconsequent talk, that swept on gaily over anything one said— Rose Macaulay
}{all the knowledge we possess ... is of the past, and the further back we can project our vision, the more comprehensive, the more thorough, the more efficient is that knowledge— Grandgent
}Often the idea of extending beyond the usual and normal line gives way to other implications derived especially from psychology, mathematics, and magic, and the word then means simply to externalize or to free oneself from{project one's thoughts
}{she projected her own guilt into the other person— Overstreet
}Both overhang and beetle imply a jutting out over the support or base: overhang sometimes connotes a threatening position, while beetle often suggests precariousness or ominousness{then lend the eye a terrible aspect ... let the brow o'erwhelm it as fearfully as doth a galled rock o'erhang and jutty his confounded base— Shak.
}{an overhanging roof
}{beetling brows
}{the dreadful summit of the cliff that beetles o'er his base— Shak.
}{an isolated hill that beetled over the western edge of the ridge— Cather
}Analogous words: swell, distend, dilate, *expandbulge n protuberance, *projection, protrusionContrasted words: cavity, hollow, *hole, pocket
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
