verb (used with object)
- to fill to excess; overcrowd or overburden; clog: The subway entrance was so congested that no one could move.
- Pathology. to cause an unnatural accumulation of blood or other fluid in (a body part or blood vessel): The cold congested her sinuses.
- Obsolete. to heap together.
verb (used without object)
- to become congested: His throat congested with phlegm.
verb
- to crowd or become crowded to excess; overfill
- to overload or clog (an organ or part) with blood or (of an organ or part) to become overloaded or clogged with blood
- (tr; usually passive) to block (the nose) with mucus
v.early 15c., “to bring together” (transitive), from Latin congestus, past participle of congerere “to bring together, pile up,” from com- “together” (see com-) + gerere “to carry, perform” (see gest). Medical sense of “unnatural accumulation” (1758) led to transferred (intransitive) sense of “overcrowd” (1859). Related: Congested; congesting. v.
- To cause the accumulation of excessive blood or tissue fluid in a vessel or an organ.