Definition of "intumesce" []

• To swell or expand; enlarge. (verb-intransitive)
• To bubble up, especially from the effect of heating. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The first two are evident, as when it fuses it runs into a globule; the last, by inspecting it before and after the heating with a magnifying glass; sometimes it froths up when heated, and is then said to "intumesce;" or, if it flies to fragments, "decrepitates.""
• "Upon exposure to fire, the material begins to intumesce (expand rapidly) in response to heat by beginning a process of evaporative cooling and charring on the surface of the coating."
• "I looked downbound at myself - but because it was so Stygian in m shack I could wager null another than the lightning gleaming cloth reaching from my intumesce button."