deflate
[dih-fleyt]
- 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.
- to depress or reduce (a person or a person's ego, hopes, spirits, etc.); puncture; dash: Her rebuff thoroughly deflated me.
- to reduce (currency, prices, etc.) from an inflated condition; to affect with deflation.
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- to become deflated.
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Origin of deflate
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for deflated
Contemporary Examples
Papers sent reporters along the old Route 66 in search of the deflated American dream.
Gore stood up to challenge Bush in this 2000 debate, but got flummoxed and deflated by a simple nod.
But if Strauss-Kahn's case is dismissed, or deflated to a misdemeanor, the question will be how thick that line is, in fact.
And numbed out, having escaped death on 9/11, notes the World Trade Center “towers collapsing like a deflated carnival castle.”
This was never a bubble that was going to pop, it was a balloon that has now deflated.
Historical Examples
Johnson deflated his area of the room with his breath intake.
Measure for a LonerJames Judson Harmon
Like a punctured ballon it deflated and became a shriveled, clinging thing.
The Copper-Clad WorldHarl Vincent
As has been said, Joe deflated his lungs just before he took his dive.
Joe Strong, the Boy FishVance Barnum
He deflated his chest, spread his heels, and ceased to draw in his abdomen.
Indiscretions of ArchieP. G. Wodehouse
Which deflated that particular enterprise for the moment, anyway.
The KillerStewart Edward White
deflate
- to collapse or cause to collapse through the release of gas
- (tr) to take away the self-esteem or conceit from
- economics to cause deflation of (an economy, the money supply, etc)
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Word Origin
C19: from de- + (in) flate
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
Word Origin and History for deflated
deflate
v.
1891, in reference to balloons, coinage based on inflate. Latin deflare meant "to blow away," but in the modern word the prefix is taken in the sense of "down." Related: Deflated; deflating.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper