balloon
a bag made of thin rubber or other light material, usually brightly colored, inflated with air or with some lighter-than-air gas and used as a children's plaything or as a decoration.
a bag made of a light material, as silk or plastic, filled with heated air or a gas lighter than air, designed to rise and float in the atmosphere and often having a car or gondola attached below for carrying passengers or scientific instruments.
(in drawings, cartoons, etc.) a balloon-shaped outline enclosing words represented as issuing from the mouth of the speaker.
an ornamental ball at the top of a pillar, pier, or the like.
a large, globular wineglass.
Chemistry Now Rare. a round-bottomed flask.
to go up or ride in a balloon.
to swell or puff out like a balloon.
to multiply or increase at a rapid rate: Membership has ballooned beyond all expectations.
to fill with air; inflate or distend (something) like a balloon.
puffed out like a balloon: balloon sleeves.
Finance. (of a loan, mortgage, or the like) having a payment at the end of the term that is much bigger than previous ones.
Origin of balloon
1Other words from balloon
- bal·loon·like, adjective
Words Nearby balloon
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use balloon in a sentence
Yet the costs of law enforcement are ballooning and, according to City Council members, unsustainable.
Morning Report: Oceanside Reboots Top Cop Search | Voice of San Diego | September 14, 2020 | Voice of San DiegoZhong isn’t the only one whose fortune has ballooned from Nongfu’s trading debut.
A blockbuster IPO briefly made a bottled water entrepreneur China’s richest man | Grady McGregor | September 8, 2020 | FortunePerhaps this is why search interest in SEO itself, which was largely stagnant from mid-2017 to early this year, has ballooned.
SEO in the second half of 2020: Five search opportunities to act on now | Jim Yu | August 17, 2020 | Search Engine WatchIn a brief moment of rapid expansion, that burst of energy inflated the cosmos like a balloon.
Future satellites or weather balloons could provide data on whether this has happened, says Pengfei Yu.
Australian wildfires pumped smoke to record heights | Maria Temming | July 27, 2020 | Science News For Students
He was like an un-tied balloon that had been inflated and immediately released.
Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve's Epic Friendship and the Greatest Williams Story Ever Told | Marlow Stern | August 12, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTShe had grown so perfect and gentle and consoling that it was unbearable, she was a big, round smooth balloon without a face.
The Great Texas balloon Race on July 29th-August 4th feature daily races with some of the best balloon pilot talent in the game.
Balloon Races Are Suddenly Cool. Why? Because, Instagram | Starbucks | July 10, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTManned, unmanned, a balloon, a kite—you still have to get the information into the hands of the firefighters.
Fighting Wildfire With Satellites, Lasers, and Drones | Elizabeth Lopatto | July 9, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThis was a tethered reconnaissance balloon, as first used 220 years ago in the French Revolutionary War.
For, at that moment Squinty stood up on his hind legs, as the boy had taught him, and walked over toward the big balloon basket.
Squinty the Comical Pig | Richard BarnumSquinty cuddled down in the basket of the balloon, between two bags full of something, and shivered.
Squinty the Comical Pig | Richard BarnumThere were a great many of them in the balloon, and Squinty thought they must have something good in them.
Squinty the Comical Pig | Richard BarnumMandy Ann had put on her best frock, a white one, stiff with starch, and standing out like a small balloon.
The Cromptons | Mary J. HolmesThere was nothing left before him now but San Francisco or a balloon; heaven being out of the question.
Ancestors | Gertrude Atherton
British Dictionary definitions for balloon
/ (bəˈluːn) /
an inflatable rubber bag of various sizes, shapes, and colours: usually used as a plaything or party decoration
a large impermeable bag inflated with a lighter-than-air gas, designed to rise and float in the atmosphere. It may have a basket or gondola for carrying passengers, etc: See also barrage balloon, hot-air balloon
a circular or elliptical figure containing the words or thoughts of a character in a cartoon
British
a kick or stroke that propels a ball high into the air
(as modifier): a balloon shot
chem a round-bottomed flask
a large rounded brandy glass
commerce
a large sum paid as an irregular instalment of a loan repayment
(as modifier): a balloon loan
surgery
an inflatable plastic tube used for dilating obstructed blood vessels or parts of the alimentary canal
(as modifier): balloon angioplasty
go down like a lead balloon informal to be completely unsuccessful or unpopular
when the balloon goes up informal when the trouble or action begins
(intr) to go up or fly in a balloon
(intr) to increase or expand significantly and rapidly: losses ballooned to £278 million
to inflate or be inflated; distend; swell: the wind ballooned the sails
(tr) British to propel (a ball) high into the air
Origin of balloon
1Derived forms of balloon
- ballooning, noun
- balloonist, noun
- balloon-like, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with balloon
In addition to the idiom beginning with balloon
- balloon goes up, the
also see:
- go over (like a lead balloon)
- trial balloon
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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