balloon

noun

• 1a small coloured rubber bag which is inflated with air and then sealed at the neck, used as a child’s toy or a decoration: the room was festooned with balloons and streamers figurativehis derision pricked the fragile balloon of her vanity

• 2 (also hot-air balloon) a large bag filled with hot air or gas to make it rise in the air, typically one carrying a basket for passengers:he set his sights on crossing the Pacific by balloon

• 3a rounded outline in which the words or thoughts of characters in a comic strip or cartoon are written: a balloon reading ‘Ka-Pow!’

• 4 (also balloon glass) a large rounded drinking glass, used especially for brandy: a balloon of armagnac

• 5Scottish informal a stupid person.

verb

• 1swell out in a spherical shape:the trousers ballooned out below his waist
• (of an amount of money spent or owed) increase rapidly:the company’s debt has ballooned in the last five years
• (of a person) increase rapidly in weight:I ate out of boredom and I just ballooned up

• 2British (with reference to a ball) lob or be lobbed high in the air:the ball ballooned into the air

• 3travel by hot-air balloon:he is famous for ballooning across oceans