balloon

noun

1. 1

   An inflatable buoyant object, often (but not necessarily) round and flexible.

2. 2

   Such an object as a child’s toy or party decoration.

3. 3

   Such an object designed to transport people or equipment through the air.

4. 4

   A sac inserted into part of the body for therapeutic reasons; such as angioplasty.

5. 5

   A speech bubble.

6. 6

   A wide rounded glass with a stem and foot, used for wine, brandy, etc.

7. 7

   A ball or globe on the top of a pillar, church, etc.

   the balloon of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London

8. 8

   A round vessel, usually with a short neck, to hold or receive whatever is distilled; a glass vessel of a spherical form.

9. 9

   A bomb or shell.

10. 10

    obsoleteA game played with a large inflated ball.

11. 11

    The outline enclosing words represented as coming from the mouth of a pictured figure.

12. 12

    slangA woman's breast.

13. 13

    slangA small container for illicit drugs made from a condom or the finger of a latex glove, etc.

    And all I had to do in return was take a drive up to Ricardo's place on the way home and then a pretty edgy one back to Rondebosch with a balloon of coke sandwiched between two pairs of underpants.

14. 14

    Synonym of balloon payment.

    The purpose of the balloon is to reduce the periodic payment required during the life of the financing period.

verb

1. 1

   To increase or expand rapidly.

   His stomach ballooned from eating such a large meal.

   Prices will balloon if we don't act quickly.

   For the franchise’s ballooning, unmanageable cast of mutants, picking sides now seems to have less to do with choosing between cooperation (which the recent movies implicitly distrust) and resistance, and more with whichever flashback-prone white dude’s overbearing savior complex works for you.

   ScotRail has long been run at a significant subsidy, with only the Edinburgh-Glasgow express line making a profit from fares, but government support has ballooned since the start of the pandemic.

2. 2

   To go up or voyage in a balloon.

3. 3

   To take up in, or as if in, a balloon.

4. 4

   To inflate like a balloon.

   A puff of wind from the open door caught and ballooned the scanties; off they sailed, out the window billowing into freedom.

5. 5

   To strike (a ball) so that it flies high in the air.

   After four minutes, leading goalscorer Haworth slid in but ballooned the ball over from six yards, and Hume then outran the defence to get to the by-line, but he could only hit his cross straight out.

6. 6

   Of an aircraft: to plunge alternately up and down.

   The plane ballooned into the air about 20 feet, banging down again for another good-sized hop.

Forms

plural

balloons

past tense

ballooned

past participle

ballooned

present participle

ballooning

third person singular

balloons