bloat

American  

[bloht] / bloʊt /

verb (used with object)

1. to expand or distend, as with air, water, etc.; cause to swell.

   Overeating bloated their bellies.

   Synonyms:

   balloon, enlarge, inflate, inflate, swell, swell

2. to puff up; make vain or conceited.

   The promotion has bloated his ego to an alarming degree.

3. to cure (fishes) as bloaters.

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verb (used without object)

1. to become swollen; be puffed out or dilated.

   The carcass started to bloat.

noun

1. Also called hoven.  Veterinary Pathology. (in cattle, sheep, and horses) a distention of the rumen or paunch or of the large colon by gases of fermentation, caused by eating ravenously of green forage, especially legumes.

2. a person or thing that is bloated.

3. bloater.

bloat British  

/ bləʊt /

verb

1. to swell or cause to swell, as with a liquid, air, or wind

2. to become or cause to be puffed up, as with conceit

3. (tr) to cure (fish, esp herring) by half-drying in smoke

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noun

1. vet science an abnormal distention of the abdomen in cattle, sheep, etc, caused by accumulation of gas in the stomach

Etymology

Origin of bloat

First recorded in 1250–1300; earlier bloat (adjective) “soft, puffy,” Middle English blout, from Old Norse blautr “wet, soft”

Example Sentences

Stockman walked readers through the enormous gap between the casual assumption that there were vast amounts of bloat and free money in the federal budget and the actual reality when you looked at the numbers.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 3, 2026

Facebook owner Meta has also cut jobs over the past year, in a move intended to remove organizational bloat following aggressive hiring during the pandemic.

From Barron's • Jan. 28, 2026

Two years before Mr. Musk had freed Twitter from bloat and mismanagement by cutting nearly four-fifths of employees and creating something that worked better.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 25, 2025

Rivian wasn’t the only tech company to announce cuts this week, with Meta laying off 600 employees within its artificial intelligence department on Wednesday in an effort to streamline operations and decrease bloat.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 23, 2025

Horrific as it was, the present dark, I was afraid to leave it for the other, permanent dark—jelly and bloat, the muddy pit.

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

Related Words

• inflate
• swell