bloat

[ bloht ]
See synonyms for bloat on Thesaurus.com
verb (used with object)
  1. to expand or distend, as with air, water, etc.; cause to swell: Overeating bloated their bellies.

  2. to puff up; make vain or conceited: The promotion has bloated his ego to an alarming degree.

  1. to cure (fishes) as bloaters.

verb (used without object)
  1. to become swollen; be puffed out or dilated: The carcass started to bloat.

noun
  1. Also called hoven .Veterinary Pathology. (in cattle, sheep, and horses) a distention of the rumen or paunch or of the large colon by gases of fermentation, caused by eating ravenously of green forage, especially legumes.

  2. a person or thing that is bloated.

Origin of bloat

1
First recorded in 1250–1300; earlier bloat (adjective) “soft, puffy,” Middle English blout, from Old Norse blautr “wet, soft”

Other words for bloat

Words Nearby bloat

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use bloat in a sentence

  • Some one of the above purgatives should be given after the bloat has subsided, and careful feeding for some days must be observed.

    Domestic Animals | Richard L. Allen
  • Should you be still anxious to arrive at bloat, you cannot do better than——'

    Berry And Co. | Dornford Yates
  • His physical weakness, they soon discovered, was exactly what was to be expected of a whisky bloat.

    The Snow-Burner | Henry Oyen
  • I was well until I weaned my baby and then I began to bloat and had bearing down pains.

  • Excessive fermentations of this kind are responsible for the distressing phenomenon known as "bloat."

    The Chemistry of Plant Life | Roscoe Wilfred Thatcher

British Dictionary definitions for bloat

bloat

/ (bləʊt) /


verb
  1. to swell or cause to swell, as with a liquid, air, or wind

  2. to become or cause to be puffed up, as with conceit

  1. (tr) to cure (fish, esp herring) by half-drying in smoke

noun
  1. vet science an abnormal distention of the abdomen in cattle, sheep, etc, caused by accumulation of gas in the stomach

Origin of bloat

1
C17: probably related to Old Norse blautr soaked, Old English blāt pale

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