The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 letter word NODE
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
N
O
D
E
More clues leading to the result NODE
- What distinguishes regulated from deregulated crossing
- Signal before entrance to every junction
- Where conductors meet to agree on technique, ultimately
- English lecturer raised point
- Why maiden comes to make most important point?
- An indefinite number of lines in intersection
- Doze off before end of anecdote, point where it gets complicated
- Note: lines branch perhaps at this point
- Bowels of volcano definitely swelling
- Growth of new type of poem
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "swelling" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case swelling = node.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does NODE mean?
NODE noun- A knot, knob, protuberance or swelling.
- The point where the orbit of a planet, as viewed from the Sun, intersects the ecliptic. The ascending and descending nodes refer respectively to the points where the planet moves from South to North and N to S; their respective symbols are ☊ and ☋.
- A leaf node.
- A computer or other device attached to a network.
- The point at which the lines of a funicular machine meet from different angular directions; — called also knot.
- The point at which a curve crosses itself, being a double point of the curve. See crunode and acnode.
- A similar point on a surface, where there is more than one tangent-plane.
- A vertex or a leaf in a graph of a network, or other element in a data structure.
- A hard concretion or incrustation which forms upon bones attacked with rheumatism, gout, or syphilis; sometimes also, a swelling in the neighborhood of a joint.
- A point along a standing wave where the wave has minimal amplitude.
- The knot, intrigue, or plot of a dramatic work.
- A hole in the gnomon of a sundial, through which passes the ray of light which marks the hour of the day, the parallels of the Sun's declination, his place in the ecliptic, etc.
- The word of interest in a KWIC, surrounded by left and right cotexts.