balloon

[ buh-loon ]

/ bəˈlun /

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See synonyms for: balloon / ballooned on Thesaurus.com

noun

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.

verb (used without object)

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.

verb (used with object)

to fill with air; inflate or distend (something) like a balloon.

adjective

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.

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Origin of balloon

1570–80; <Upper Italian ballone, equivalent to ball(a) (<Langobardic; see ball¹) + -one augmentative suffix; or <Middle French ballon<Upper Italian

OTHER WORDS FROM balloon

bal·loon·like, adjective

Words nearby balloon

ball of wax, ballon, ballon d'essai, ballonet, ballonné, balloon, balloon angioplasty, balloon barrage, balloon-berry, balloon chuck, balloon clock

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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 Diego
Zhong 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|Fortune
Perhaps 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 Watch
In a brief moment of rapid expansion, that burst of energy inflated the cosmos like a balloon.
Big Bounce Simulations Challenge the Big Bang|Charlie Wood|August 4, 2020|Quanta Magazine

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|DAILY BEAST
She had grown so perfect and gentle and consoling that it was unbearable, she was a big, round smooth balloon without a face.
Tove Jansson, Queen of the Moomins|John Garth|August 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
Manned, 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|DAILY BEAST
This was a tethered reconnaissance balloon, as first used 220 years ago in the French Revolutionary War.
Why Old-School Airships Now Rule Our Warzones|Bill Sweetman|June 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
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 Barnum
Squinty cuddled down in the basket of the balloon, between two bags full of something, and shivered.
Squinty the Comical Pig|Richard Barnum
There were a great many of them in the balloon, and Squinty thought they must have something good in them.
Squinty the Comical Pig|Richard Barnum
Mandy Ann had put on her best frock, a white one, stiff with starch, and standing out like a small balloon.
The Cromptons|Mary J. Holmes
There 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

balloon

/ (bəˈluːn) /

noun

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, etcSee 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

verb

(intr) to go up or fly in a balloon

(intr) to increase or expand significantly and rapidlylosses ballooned to £278 million

to inflate or be inflated; distend; swellthe wind ballooned the sails

(tr) British to propel (a ball) high into the air

Derived forms of balloon

ballooning, nounballoonist, nounballoon-like, adjective

Word Origin for balloon

C16 (in the sense: ball, ball game): from Italian dialect ballone, from balla, of Germanic origin; compare Old High German balla ball 1

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

balloon

In addition to the idiom beginning with balloon

balloon goes up, the

also see:

go over (like a lead balloon)
trial balloon

balloon

Origin of balloon

OTHER WORDS FROM balloon

Words nearby balloon

Words related to balloon

How to use balloon in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for balloon

Derived forms of balloon

Word Origin for balloon

Other Idioms and Phrases with balloon