Crossword clues for inflate
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Inflate \In*flate"\, v. i. To expand; to fill; to distend.
Inflate \In*flate"\, p. a. [L. inflatus, p. p. of inflare to
inflate; pref. in- in + flare to blow. See Blow to puff
wind.]
Blown in; inflated.
--Chaucer.
Inflate \In*flate"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Inflated; p. pr. & vb. n. Inflating.]
-
To swell or distend with air or gas; to dilate; to expand; to enlarge; as, to inflate a bladder; to inflate the lungs.
When passion's tumults in the bosom rise, Inflate the features, and enrage the eyes.
--J. Scott of Amwell. -
Fig.: To swell; to puff up; to elate; as, to inflate one with pride or vanity.
Inflate themselves with some insane delight.
--Tennyson. To cause to become unduly expanded or increased; as, to inflate the currency.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 15c., "cause to swell," from Latin inflatus, past participle of inflare "to blow into, inflate" (see inflation). Economics sense from 1844. In some senses a back-formation from inflation. Related: Inflatable; inflated; inflating.
Wiktionary
vb. 1 (context transitive English) To enlarge an object by pushing air (or a gas) into it; to raise or expand abnormally 2 (context intransitive English) To enlarge by filling with air (or a gas). 3 (context figurative English) To swell; to puff up. 4 (cx transitive computing English) To decompress (data) that was previously deflated.
WordNet
v. fill with gas or air; "inflate a balloons" [syn: blow up] [ant: deflate]
exaggerate or make bigger; "The charges were inflated" [syn: blow up, expand, amplify]
cause prices to rise by increasing the available currency or credit; "The war inflated the economy" [ant: deflate]
increase the amount or availability of, creating a rise in value; "inflate the currency" [ant: deflate]
become inflated; "The sails ballooned" [syn: balloon, billow]
Usage examples of "inflate".
Will watched Tom Tilley, a man who never smiled, hang on a backstay like a gigantic inflated sheep tick whooping and huzzahing as if someone had made him rich.
The Kill-the-Bees crusade claimed that 100 million bees perished - a figure most observers thought inflated.
A heterogeneous collection of navigable balloons of all sizes and types gathered over the Bernese Oberland, crushed and burnt the twenty-five Swiss air-ships that unexpectedly resisted this concentration in the battle of the Alps, and then, leaving the Alpine glaciers and valleys strewn with strange wreckage, divided into two fleets and set itself to terrorise Berlin and destroy the Franconian Park, seeking to do this before the second air-fleet could be inflated.
New York and Quito, sometimes stopped in Boca Grande to refuel, and paid an inflated landing fee.
Mei-Ling noticed that in his right hand he bore a stick to which was attached an inflated spherical bladder or balloon, decorated to resemble the Earth as viewed from cislunar space.
Financing a new railway usually ineant its promoters would set up secretly controlled construction companies, then negotiate inflated contracts with themselves, collecting hefty profits at both ends of each deal.
The fierce, confused, inflated thoughts of Corso Navarone exhorted them to be brave, strong, united, gallant, dignified like him.
For a diamond mine to make any profit, the gem diamonds must be sold at reliable, inflated prices.
No, he could see the bigger bulk of the gasbag, not even halfway inflated.
They had retrieved their mounts from the stable master, who had charged them an inflated fee, a common occurrence in Calim-port, and rode through one of the designated routes set aside for intracity travel.
They had retrieved their mounts from the stable master, who had charged them an inflated fee, a common occurrence in Calimport, and rode through one of the designated routes set aside for intracity travel.
The Litz Department of Correction charged a grossly inflated price, which Jeb Stuart Ho paid after a polite period of ritual haggling.
He spent the night in a fever of anticipation, clutching at shards of the elaborate fantasy he had inflated, which Maco had so easily seen and punctured.
Nothingness, which contracted a monstrous and nightmarish debt by inflating, without rhyme or reason, the metagalactic bubble!
He was exploring the parameters of his bubble, which was proving to be about the size of the inflated Moonwalks you can still see at small-town carnivals.