Word.ws English Dictionary

bloating

/ˈbləʊtɪŋ/US/ˈbloʊtɪŋ/

bloating is the present participle and gerund of bloat.

Meaning of bloat

Verb

bloat (third-person singular simple present bloats, present participle bloating, simple past and past participle bloated)

  1. To cause to become distended.
  2. (intransitive) To get an overdistended rumen, talking of a ruminant.
  3. To fill soft substance with gas, water, etc.; to cause to swell.
  4. (intransitive) 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
  5. To fill with vanity or conceit.
    • Encourage him, and bloat him up with Praise1675, John Dryden, Prologue to Circe by Dr. Davenant
  6. (dated) To preserve by slightly salting and lightly smoking.
    • bloated herring

See all 13 meanings of bloat

Noun

bloating (plural bloatings)

  1. A bloated condition; distention.
    • The bloatings, the bowel distentions, the torments from gas retention, the inability to expel flatus, are all conspicuously absent and if present are so in a mild degree.1914, Canada Lancet, volume 47, page 371

Synonyms of bloating

4 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of bloating

pluralbloatings

Words formed from bloating

Words that rhyme with bloating

Questions about bloating

What does bloating mean?
Bloating means a bloated condition; distention.
What is bloating the present participle and gerund of?
Bloating is the present participle and gerund of bloat.
What part of speech is bloating?
Bloating is a noun.
How do you pronounce bloating?
Bloating is pronounced /ˈbləʊtɪŋ/ (UK).
What is the plural of bloating?
The plural of bloating is bloatings.

Words near bloating in the dictionary

  1. bloater paste
  2. bloaters
  3. bloatier
  4. bloatiest
  5. bloatiness
  6. bloating
  7. bloatings
  8. bloats
  9. bloatsome
  10. bloatware
  11. bloaty

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bloating (page history and authors); bloat (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bloating.wav.

Cite this entry: “bloating.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bloating. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.