bloat

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

bloat

/bləʊt/ UK
/bloʊt/ Canada, US
/bləʉt/ Australia
/blɐʉt/ New Zealand

Rhymes with -əʊt

Where it comes from

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”).

verb bloats · bloating · bloated

To cause to become distended.
intransitive To get an overdistended rumen, talking of a ruminant.
To fill soft substance with gas, water, etc.; to cause to swell.
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 Fibres
To fill with vanity or conceit. 1675, John Dryden, Prologue to Circe by Dr. Davenant Encourage him, and bloat him up with Praise
dated 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 Som

noun bloats

countable, uncountable Distention of the abdomen from death.
countable, uncountable Pathological overdistention of rumen with gas in a ruminant.
Similar: ruminal tympany
countable, figuratively, uncountable Wasteful use of space or other resources. Adding an e-mail feature to this simple text editor would be pointless bloat.
countable, dated, derogatory, slang, uncountable A worthless, dissipated fellow.
collective, countable, uncountable A group of hippopotamuses. A group of hippos is called a bloat.

adjective more bloat · most bloat

obsolete bloated. Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed

Translations

Every language

verb to cause to become distended

Español	hinchar, inflar
Português	inchar
Deutsch	schwellen, aufblasen, aufblähen
Italiano	gonfiare

verb to get an overdistended rumen

Français	gonfler, météoriser
Deutsch	aufblähen
Italiano	gonfiarsi

verb to fill soft substance with gas, water, etc

Español	inflar
Português	encher
Français	gonfler, bouffir, boursoufler
Deutsch	aufblasen
Русский	надувать naduvatʹ, раздувать razduvatʹ

noun overdistension of rumen

Español	hinchamiento
Français	météorisme, tympanisme
Deutsch	Aufblähen, Tympanie

Talk about this word

Cite this

MLA

"bloat." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/bloat. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

bloat. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/bloat

Chicago

"bloat." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/bloat.

BibTeX

@misc{bloat_2026,
  title = {bloat},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/bloat},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}