bloat
UK/bləʊt/US/bloʊt/
bloat verb: to cause to become distended.
Verb
bloat (third-person singular simple present bloats, present participle bloating, simple past and past participle bloated)
- To cause to become distended.
- To get an overdistended rumen, talking of a ruminant.
- To fill soft substance with gas, water, etc.; to cause to swell.
- To become distended; to swell up.
- if a Person of a firm Conſtitution begins to bloat, and from being warm grows cold, his Fibres grow weak, Anxiety and Palpitations of the Heart are a ſign of weak Fibres1731, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments, and the Choice of Them, According to the Different Constitutions of Human Bodies. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson […], →OCLC
- To fill with vanity or conceit.
- Encourage him, and bloat him up with Praise1675, John Dryden, Prologue to Circe by Dr. Davenant
- To preserve by slightly salting and lightly smoking.
- bloated herring
- To increase to an excessive amount.
- In the UK, the fraction of electricity generated by nuclear plants has slid steadily downwards, from 25% in the 1990s to 16% in 2020. Of the five nuclear stations still producing power, only one will run beyond 2028. Hinkley Point C, the first new nuclear plant in a generation, is being built in...December 15 2022, Samanth Subramanian, “Dismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site”, in The Guardian
Noun
bloat (countable and uncountable, plural bloats)
- Distention of the abdomen from death.
- Pathological overdistention of rumen with gas in a ruminant.
- Synonyms:
- ruminal tympany
- Wasteful use of space or other resources.
- Adding an e-mail feature to this simple text editor would be pointless bloat.
- A worthless, dissipated fellow.
- A group of hippopotamuses.
- A group of hippos is called a bloat.2019 June 6, “A gaggle, a confusion and a conspiracy - bizarre animal collective group names”, in BBC
- It was a massive bloat of hippopotamus making a beeline right for them. Bakvissie didn't have to be told twice, he scrambled over Shimbaka's head and straight up into the tree so fast that Shimbaka wasn't even sure it was Bakvissie. The bloat descended rapidly and Shimbaka only had seconds to swing...2016, David Chandler, Shaman of New York, page 200
Adjective
bloat (comparative more bloat, superlative most bloat)
- bloated.
- Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, act 3, scene 4: The Queen's Closet
bloat meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Punjabi
bloat in Tamil
- பொருமல், வயிற்று உப்புசம், உப்புசம், நீரில் உப்பவை, உப்பு, காற்றுட்டி ஊதவை
bloat in Urdu
- پھولنا, سوجنا
bloat in Bengali
- ফুলে ওঠা, ফোলানো, উদরাময় হওয়া
bloat in Punjabi
- to bloat; overeat, gorge, glut, or gourmandise
- ਆਫਰਨਾ āpharnā
Examples of bloat in a sentence
- Hinkley Point C, the first new nuclear plant in a generation, is being built in Somerset, but its cost has bloated to more than £25bn.December 15 2022, Samanth Subramanian, “Dismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site”, in The Guardian:
- It was a massive bloat of hippopotamus making a beeline right for them.2016, David Chandler, Shaman of New York, page 200:
- One evening I crawled into the pup tent I was sharing with John Yost on a beach pockmarked with hoofprints across from a bloat of hippos blowing their tubas.2023, Richard Bangs, The Art of Living Dangerously: True Stories from a Life on the Edge, Globe Pequot, page 109:
- They thought about pulling ashore to camp, however bloats of hippos, teams of crocks, and swarms of mozzies changed their minds.2026, Santiago Dizon, Joanne and the Headhunters:
Synonyms of bloat
- ruminal tympany
Forms of bloat
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | bloats |
| present participle | bloating |
| past participle | bloated |
| past | bloated |
| Noun | |
| plural | bloats |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more bloat |
| superlative | most bloat |
Origin of bloat
Perhaps from Middle English blot, blout (“soft; flexible; pliable”), from Old Norse blautr (“soft”). Akin to Danish blød, Dutch bloot (“nude”) and German bloß (“nude”).
Words formed from bloat
Words that rhyme with bloat
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- quote
- connote
- groat
- remote
- scrote
- tote
- bote
- capote
- denote
- devote
- dote
- mote
- smote
- solar boat
- undercoat
- cote
- demote
- gloat
- pote
- refloat
- rote
- undernote
- wrote
- yote
- blót
- confidence vote
- disease boat
- end of quote
- end quote
- entrecôte
- flote
- frote
- ignote
- isot
- lote
- loth
- misquote
- moth
- phot
- recoat
- rewrote
- shoat
- stoat
- swagger coat
- troat
- two hundred fifty-sixth note
- underquote
- underwrote
Questions about bloat
- What does bloat mean?
- Bloat means to cause to become distended.
- What is bloat in Tamil?
- Bloat in Tamil is பொருமல், வயிற்று உப்புசம், உப்புசம். See Bloat meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use bloat in a sentence?
- Hinkley Point C, the first new nuclear plant in a generation, is being built in Somerset, but its cost has bloated to more than £25bn.
- What part of speech is bloat?
- Bloat can be a verb, a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce bloat?
- Bloat is pronounced /bləʊt/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of bloat?
- The past tense of bloat is bloated.
Words near bloat in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bloat (page history and authors); bloat (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bloat (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bloat (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਆਫਰਨਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-bloat.ogg.
Cite this entry: “bloat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bloat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.