bubble

Meaning

Noun

1. A spherically contained volume of air or other gas, especially one made from soapy liquid.
2. A small spherical cavity in a solid material.
3. (broadly) Anything resembling a hollow sphere.
4. (figuratively) Anything lacking firmness or solidity; a cheat or fraud; an empty project.
5. A period of intense speculation in a market, causing prices to rise quickly to irrational levels as the metaphorical bubble expands, and then fall even more quickly as the bubble bursts.
6. (figuratively) The emotional or physical atmosphere in which a subject is immersed.
7. An officer's station in a prison dormitory, affording views on all sides.
8. (obsolete) Someone who has been ‘bubbled’ or fooled; a dupe.
9. A small, hollow, floating bead or globe, formerly used for testing the strength of spirits.
10. The globule of air in the chamber of a spirit level.
11. (Cockney, slang) A laugh.
12. (Cockney, slang) A Greek.
13. (historical) Any of the small magnetized areas that make up bubble memory.
14. In a poker tournament, the point before which eliminated players receive no prize money and after which they do; the situation where all remaining players are guaranteed prize money (in this case, the players are said to have made the bubble); the situation where all remaining players will be guaranteed prize money after some small number of players are eliminated (in this case, the players are said to be on the bubble).
15. The cutoff point between qualifying, advancing or being invited to a tournament, or having one's competition end.
16. A quarantine environment containing multiple people and/or facilities isolated from the rest of society.
17. The people who are in this quarantine.
18. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis) Ellipsis of travel bubble.
19. (slang) A bulb or lamp; the part of a lighting assembly that actually produces the light.
20. A specialized glass pipe having a sphere-shaped apparatus at one end.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To produce bubbles, to rise up in bubbles (such as in foods cooking or liquids boiling).
2. (figuratively, intransitive) To churn or foment, as if wishing to rise to the surface.
3. (figuratively, intransitive) To rise through a medium or system, similar to the way that bubbles rise in liquid.
4. (obsolete, rare, transitive) To cover or spread with bubbles
5. (archaic, rare, transitive) To delude, dupe, or hoodwink; to cheat.
6. (Northern-England, Scotland, intransitive) To cry, weep.
7. (transitive) To pat a baby on the back so as to cause it to belch.
8. (transitive) To cause to feel as if bubbling or churning.
9. (transitive) To express in a bubbly or lively manner.
10. (transitive) To form into a protruding round shape.
11. (transitive) To cover with bubbles.
12. (transitive) To bubble in; to mark a response on a form by filling in a circular area (‘bubble’).
13. To apply a filter bubble, as to search results.
14. (intransitive) To join together in a support bubble
15. (UK, slang, transitive) To grass (report criminal activity to the authorities).

Opposite of

antibubble

Synonyms

foam

froth

boil

blister

effervesce

seethe

bladder

sparkle

❇️

gurgle

lather

vesicle

eruct

burble

guggle

fizz

burp

bubble up

boil up

babble

belch

bubbling

billow

churn

air bubble

form bubbles

well up

suds

brim over

sputter

simmer

ripple

house of cards

bleb

rumble

spume

crown

👑

crop

cream

craw

alveolar

chimney

glug

cheat

befool

air sac

gizzard

fume

frizzle

bulb

💡

bathrobe

Translations

bulle

Blase

bolha

bolla

burbuja

bombolla

sprudeln

burbujear

pompa

vescica

vesica

blaas

κύστη

gorgogliare

bollire

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈbʌb.əl/

Etymology

Cognate with Middle Dutch: bobbe

Cognate with Dutch: bubbel

Cognate with Low German: bubbel

Cognate with Danish: boble

Cognate with Swedish: bubbla

In summary

Partly imitative, also influenced by burble. Compare Middle Dutch bobbe (“bubble”) > Dutch bubbel (“bubble”), Low German bubbel (“bubble”), Danish boble (“bubble”), Swedish bubbla (“bubble”). The word was first used in its economic sense in association with the collapse of the South Sea Company in 1720, based on the metaphor of an inflated soap bubble bursting.