ballooned

Verb

balloon (third-person singular simple present balloons, present participle ballooning, simple past and past participle ballooned)

1. (intransitive) To increase or expand rapidly.
   • His stomach ballooned from eating such a large meal.
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.
   • A puff of wind from the open door caught and ballooned the scanties; off they sailed, out the window billowing into freedom.1944, Emily Carr, “Peach Scanties”, in The House of All Sorts
5. (transitive) 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.2015, Steve Wilson, A View From The Terraces (part 2, page 138)
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.1961, Flying Magazine, volume 69, number 3, page 86

   Synonyms:

   porpoise

See all 20 meanings of balloon