bloat

[ bloht ]
See synonyms for bloat on Thesaurus.com
verb (used with object)
  1. to expand or distend, as with air, water, etc.; cause to swell: Overeating bloated their bellies.

  2. to puff up; make vain or conceited:The promotion has bloated his ego to an alarming degree.

  1. to cure (fishes) as bloaters.

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.

Origin of bloat

1
First recorded in 1250–1300; earlier bloat (adjective) “soft, puffy,” Middle English blout, from Old Norse blautr “wet, soft”

Other words for bloat

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

How to use bloat in a sentence

  • Formerly it was the custom to keep oysters in fresh water, as the water they absorb bloats or fattens them.

    Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 3 | Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
  • Wi' that bull bloats fit to bust 'isseif, lashes wi's tail, waggles his head, and gets agate o' chargin' 'im.

    Bob, Son of Battle | Alfred Ollivant
  • We all know that it was eight or ten "honorable" bloats of the last thirty years who made our chief international troubles.

    Around The Tea-Table | T. De Witt Talmage
  • I know no better than the snake knows when his skin withers and bloats.

    Hypolympia | Edmund Gosse

British Dictionary definitions for bloat

bloat

/ (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

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

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

Origin of bloat

1
C17: probably related to Old Norse blautr soaked, Old English blāt pale

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