spread vs swell

spread

verb
  • To take up a larger area or space; to expand, be extended. 

  • To disperse, to scatter or distribute over a given area. 

  • To stretch out, open out (a material etc.) so that it more fully covers a given area of space. 

  • To cover (something) with a thin layer of some substance, as of butter. 

  • To prepare; to set and furnish with provisions. 

  • To smear, to distribute in a thin layer. 

  • To proliferate; to become more widely present, to be disseminated. 

  • To disseminate; to cause to proliferate, to make (something) widely known or present. 

  • To extend (individual rays, limbs etc.); to stretch out in varying or opposing directions. 

  • To open one’s legs, especially for sexual favours. 

noun
  • The difference between the prices of two similar items. 

  • An unlimited expanse of discontinuous points. 

  • The difference between the wholesale and retail prices. 

  • The difference between the price of a futures month and the price of another month of the same commodity. 

  • The purchase of a futures contract of one delivery month against the sale of another futures delivery month of the same commodity. 

  • Excessive width of the trails of ink written on overly absorbent paper. 

  • Two facing pages in a book, newspaper etc. 

  • An item in a newspaper or magazine that occupies more than one column or page. 

  • A piece of material used as a cover (such as a bedspread). 

  • Any form of food designed to be spread, such as butters or jams. 

  • The difference between bidding and asking price. 

  • The surface in proportion to the depth of a cut gemstone. 

  • An arbitrage transaction of the same commodity in two markets, executed to take advantage of a profit from price discrepancies. 

  • The act of spreading. 

  • An expanse of land. 

  • Something that has been spread. 

  • A set of multiple torpedoes launched on side-by-side, slowly-diverging paths toward one or more enemy ships. 

  • Food improvised by inmates from various ingredients to relieve the tedium of prison food. 

  • A numerical difference. 

  • The purchase of one delivery month of one commodity against the sale of that same delivery month of a different commodity. 

  • A large meal, especially one laid out on a table. 

  • A layout, pattern or design of cards arranged for a reading. 

  • A large tract of land used to raise livestock; a cattle ranch. 

swell

verb
  • To become bigger, especially due to being engorged. 

  • To be elated; to rise arrogantly. 

  • To be turgid, bombastic, or extravagant. 

  • To protuberate; to bulge out. 

  • To cause to grow gradually in force or loudness. 

  • To grow gradually in force or loudness. 

  • To be raised to arrogance. 

  • To raise to arrogance; to puff up; to inflate. 

  • To cause to become bigger. 

noun
  • A hillock or similar raised area of terrain. 

  • The act of swelling; increase in size. 

  • The front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the cantle on the other end. 

  • An upward protrusion of strata from whose central region the beds dip quaquaversally at a low angle. 

  • A division in a pipe organ, usually the largest enclosed division. 

  • A person of high social standing; an important person. 

  • Increase of power in style, or of rhetorical force. 

  • A device for controlling the volume of a pipe organ. 

  • A bulge or protuberance. 

  • A long series of ocean waves, generally produced by wind, and lasting after the wind has ceased. 

  • A gradual crescendo followed by diminuendo. 

adv
  • Very well. 

How often have the words spread and swell occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )