balloon

Meaning

Noun

1. An inflatable buoyant object, often (but not necessarily) round and flexible.
2. Such an object as a child’s toy or party decoration.
3. Such an object designed to transport people or equipment through the air.
4. A sac inserted into part of the body for therapeutic reasons; such as angioplasty.
5. A speech bubble.
6. A type of glass cup, sometimes used for brandy.
7. A ball or globe on the top of a pillar, church, etc.
8. A round vessel, usually with a short neck, to hold or receive whatever is distilled; a glass vessel of a spherical form.
9. A bomb or shell.
10. (obsolete) A game played with a large inflated ball.
11. The outline enclosing words represented as coming from the mouth of a pictured figure.
12. (slang) A woman's breast.
13. (slang) A small container for illicit drugs made from a condom or the finger of a latex glove, etc.
14. Synonym of balloon payment.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To increase or expand rapidly.
2. (intransitive) To go up or voyage in a balloon.
3. (transitive) To take up in, or as if in, a balloon.
4. (transitive) To inflate like a balloon.
5. (transitive) To strike (a ball) so that it flies high in the air.
6. Of an aircraft: to plunge alternately up and down.

Synonyms

hot-air balloon

aerostat

bulb

💡

airship

swell

bloat

billow

bladder

air-balloon

inflate

distend

glass

harmonica

increase

mushroom

🍄

pop

protrude

protuberate

puff

puff out

puff up

snowball

sounding

speech bubble

spread out

swell up

doughnut tire

gas cylinder

pop out

tumesce

balloon tire

lighter-than-air craft

air collector

balloon payment

balloon copy

low pressure tyre

balloon repayment

balloon tyre

belly

belly out

blimp

bulge

container

crescendo

elevator

🛗

gasbag

gas-bag

Translations

ballon

Ballon

🎈

globo

🎈

balão

🎈

ballon

🎈

Luftballon

🎈

palloncino

🎈

αερόστατο

μπαλόνι

Heißluftballon

montgolfière

luchtballon

globus

balon

🎈

Pronounced as (IPA)

/bəˈluːn/

Etymology

Cognate with German: Ballen

In summary

1570, "a game played with a large, inflated leather ball" (possibly via Middle French ballon) from Italian pallone (“large ball”) from palla (“ball”), from Lombardic *palla. The Northern Italian form, balla (“ball-shaped bundle”), today a doublet, likely derived from Old French balle, from Frankish *balla (“ball”), and may have influenced the spelling of this word. Both Germanic words are from Proto-Germanic *ballô (“ball”), *balluz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰoln- (“bubble”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to blow, swell, inflate”).
Akin to Old High German ballo, bal (“ball”), (German Ballen (“bale”); Ball "ball"). Doublet of ballon. More at ball.

Sentences

A falloon, a portmanteau of " float " and " balloon ", is a float-based balloon .