Definition of "tumescent" [tu•mes•cent]

• Somewhat tumid. (adjective)
• Becoming swollen; swelling. (adjective)

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.

• "In its excited, or tumescent condition (the word tumescent means swelled, and is the technical word for describing the erect condition of the penis) it becomes enlarged and rigid, its size in this state being, on an average, six or seven inches long, and from an inch-and-a-half to two inches in diameter."
• "The most common approach to liposuction today, known as tumescent liposuction, is also considered the safest."
• "The deaths reviewed in the new study all involved variations on "tumescent" liposuction, a popular technique developed by dermatologists in the late 1980s."