plethoric

Etymology

From Late Latin plethoricus, from Hellenistic Ancient Greek πληθωρικός (plēthōrikós), from πληθώρα (plēthṓra, “plethora”); surface analysis, plethora + -ic.

adj

1. (medicine) Suffering from plethora; ruddy in complexion, congested or swollen with blood.
   Coordinate term: flushed
   a horse-leech, whose deep maw The plethoric King Swellfoot could not fill, And who, till full, will cling for ever. 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts
   If the predisposition to the disease has arisen from a plethoric state of the system, or from a turgescence in the vessels of the head, this is to be obviated by bleeding, both generally and topically, but more particularly the latter; an abstemious diet and proper exercise; and by a seton in the neck. 1842, Gibbons Merle, John Reitch, The Domestic Dictionary and Housekeeper’s Manual: Comprising Everything Related to Cookery, Diet, Economy and Medicine. By Gibbons Merle. The Medical Portion of the Work by John Reitch, M.D., London: William Strange, 21, Paternoster Row, →OCLC, page 360, column 2
   Harold Atkinson, her host, was a fine handsome grey-haired man, plethoric and somewhat corpulent, with an eye for a pretty woman […]. 1941, W Somerset Maugham, Up at the Villa, Vintage, published 2004, page 81
2. Excessive, overabundant, rife; loosely, abundant, varied.
   the judges … were arranging their robes and coughing into their fists, the ebb and flow of their plethoric wigs like a flock of sheep on the run. 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 161