balloon
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.
were ballooning
-
past progressiveof balloon.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Such costs were projected to increase to $540 million by 2023 at the same time as pension payments were ballooning.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2025
With the new valuation, costs associated with the rent — property taxes, insurance and more, which get passed along to tenants — were ballooning, and not going to deflate anytime soon.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 11, 2020
Japan recently scrapped construction for the 2020 Summer Olympics’ main venue in Tokyo, because costs were ballooning to more than $2 billion, a $1 billion jump from original estimates.
From Forbes ● Aug. 7, 2015
Her staff alerted her that banks were overinvesting in speculative commercial real estate at a time when housing prices in the region were ballooning.
From Reuters ● Oct. 30, 2013
