Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.

Swell

Swells as the poised ocean to the attracting moon obedient swells.
—Mark Akenside

Swells like an angry hen ruffling her feathers.
—Anonymous

Swelling like a tragic organ note.
—Anonymous

Swells like mushrooms.
—Anonymous

Swelled like the gourd.
—Anonymous

Voice swells up like mutter’d thunder.
—Lord Byron

Hearts swelling in presence of the Queen of Hearts; like the sea swelling when once near its moon.
—Thomas Carlyle

Swellynge like bubbles in a boillynge welle.
—Thomas Chatterton

His voice swelled like a sanctus rising from the choir of a cathedral.
—Thomas De Quincey

Swell like a corporation which has been attached to a hose.
—George Fitch

Swelled like a sail by the sea-breeze.
—Gustave Flaubert

Swell like bubbles, shine and break.
—John Gay

Swells like a filthy toad with secret spite.
—William Gifford

Swelling like a torrent.
—George Granville

Swelled, like toad that meets disaster.
—Lemuel Hopkins

Swell like a boil.
—Ben Jonson

Swells like the chant of serenader or the chimes of silver bells.
—Alexander Beaufort Meek

Swelling on
Like the waves of eternity.
—Thomas Moore

Swell up like a stock company leading man.
—George Jean Nathan

Swelled like a psalm.
—Sir Joseph Noel Paton

Swell, like round and orient pearls.
—William Shakespeare

Swells like a sail before a favouring breeze.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley

Swell like a shirt bleaching in high wind.
—John Tobin

Swells like the bosom of a man set free.
—William Wordsworth