deflate

American  

[dih-fleyt] / dɪˈfleɪt /

verb (used with object)

deflated, deflating

1. to release the air or gas from (something inflated, as a balloon).

   They deflated the tires slightly to allow the truck to drive under the overpass.

2. to depress or reduce (a person or a person's ego, hopes, spirits, etc.); puncture; dash.

   Her rebuff thoroughly deflated me.

3. to reduce (currency, prices, etc.) from an inflated condition; to affect with deflation.

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verb (used without object)

deflated, deflating

1. to become deflated.

deflate British  

/ dɪˈfleɪt /

verb

1. to collapse or cause to collapse through the release of gas

2. (tr) to take away the self-esteem or conceit from

3. economics to cause deflation of (an economy, the money supply, etc)

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Other Word Forms

• deflator noun
• self-deflated adjective

Etymology

Origin of deflate

1890–95; < Latin dēflātus blown off, away (past participle of dēflāre ), equivalent to dē- de- + fl ( āre ) to blow + -ātus -ate ¹

Example Sentences

I deflated a little more every hour, and I wriggled and wriggled as Frederick and Bruno snored on.

From Literature

Yet deflating may be the better analogy—especially when it comes to valuations.

From Barron's

One that the AI bubble might be deflating is the loss of monopolistic-like pricing power by the leading companies.

From MarketWatch

“Outside of earnings, one thing that would deflate the equal-weight from outperforming, would be the overall macro liquidity landscape,” he said.

From MarketWatch

Detractors say the law would slow development and deflate property values.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• depress
• diminish
• exhaust