| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| balloon |
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| SYLLABICATION: | bal·loon |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  b -l n |
| NOUN: | 1a. A flexible bag designed to be inflated with hot air or with a gas, such as helium, that is lighter than the surrounding air, causing it to rise and float in the atmosphere. b. Such a bag with sufficient capacity to lift and transport a suspended gondola or other load. c. Such a bag shaped like a figure or object when inflated; an inflatable. 2. A usually round or oblong inflatable rubber bag used as a toy. 3. Medicine A sac that is inserted into a body cavity or tube and distended with air or gas for therapeutic purposes, such as angioplasty. 4. A rounded or irregularly shaped outline containing the words that a character in a cartoon is represented to be saying. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: bal·looned, bal·loon·ing, bal·loons
| | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To ascend or ride in a balloon. 2. To expand or swell out like a balloon. See synonyms at bulge. 3. To increase or rise quickly. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | To cause to expand by or as if by inflating. | | ADJECTIVE: | Suggestive of a balloon, as in shape: balloon curtains. | | ETYMOLOGY: | French ballon, from Italian dialectal ballone, augmentative of balla, ball, of Germanic origin. See bhel-2 in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | bal·loonist —NOUN
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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