The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 letter word SWELL
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
S
W
E
L
L
Buddy explains!
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 SWELL mean?
SWELL verb- To become bigger, especially due to being engorged.
- To cause to become bigger.
- To grow gradually in force or loudness.
- To raise to arrogance; to puff up; to inflate.
- To be raised to arrogance.
- To be elated; to rise arrogantly.
- To be turgid, bombastic, or extravagant.
- To protuberate; to bulge out.
- The act of swelling; increase in size.
- A bulge or protuberance.
- Increase of power in style, or of rhetorical force.
- A long series of ocean waves, generally produced by wind, and lasting after the wind has ceased.
- A gradual crescendo followed by diminuendo.
- A device for controlling the volume of a pipe organ.
- A division in a pipe organ, usually the largest enclosed division.
- A hillock or similar raised area of terrain.
- An upward protrusion of strata from whose central region the beds dip quaquaversally at a low angle.
- A person who dresses in a fancy or elegant manner.
- A person of high social standing; an important person.
- The front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the cantle on the other end.
- Fashionable, like a swell or dandy.
- Excellent.
- Very well.