Other forms: bulging, bulges, bulged
To bulge is to swell out past the line something should keep. A suitcase that will not shut, a wall pushed out by roots.
It suggests pressure from inside, which is what separates it from simply curving. Pockets bulge, files bulge, eyes bulge with surprise. As a noun a bulge is the swelling itself, and in population studies a bulge is a group larger than those either side of it, which is where the baby boom bulge comes from. Bulging is the adjective, and bulging at the seams is the fixed phrase for far too full.
fro-nor
bouge
Middle English
bulge
English, today
bulge
From Middle English bulge, from fro-nor bouge. From Middle English bulge (“leather bag; hump”), from fro-nor boulge (“leather bag”), from Latin bulga (“leather sack”), from cel-gau bulga, bulgos, from Proto-Celtic bolgos (“sack, bag, stomach”). Cognate with bilge, belly, bellows, budget, French bouge, German Balg, etc. a doublet of budge, and from the same root as belly and bellows. See also budget.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA