bloat

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

bloat, v. t. [Cf. Icel. blotna to become soft, blautr soft, wet, Sw. blöt soft, blöta to soak; akin to G. bloss bare, and AS. bleát wretched; or perh. fr. root of Eng. 5th blow. Cf. Blote.].

•  To make turgid, as with water or air; to cause a swelling of the surface of, from effusion of serum in the cellular tissue, producing a morbid enlargement, often accompanied with softness.  [1913 Webster]
•  To inflate; to puff up; to make vain.  Dryden.  [1913 Webster]

bloat, v. i. 

 To grow turgid as by effusion of liquid in the cellular tissue; to puff out; to swell.  Arbuthnot.  [1913 Webster]

bloat, a. 

 Bloated.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

bloat, n. 

 A term of contempt for a worthless, dissipated fellow.  [1913 Webster]

bloat, v. t. 

 To dry (herrings) in smoke. See Blote.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

bloat, v.
1 tr. & intr. inflate, swell (wind bloated the sheets; bloated with gas).
2 tr. (as bloated adj.) a swollen, puffed. b puffed up with pride or excessive wealth (bloated plutocrat).
3 tr. cure (a herring) by salting and smoking lightly.

Etymology

obs. bloat swollen, soft and wet, perh. f. ON blautr soaked, flabby

THESAURUS

bloat

accrue, accumulate, add to, advance, aggrandize, amplify, appreciate, augment, balloon, bloatedness, bloating, blotter, blow up, blowing up, boom, boozehound, boozer, breaking point, breed, broaden, build, build up, bulk, bulk out, crescendo, develop, diastole, dilatation, dilate, dilation, distend, distension, dropsy, drunk, edema, enlarge, expand, extend, extreme tension, fill out, flatulence, flatulency, flatus, gain, gain strength, gassiness, get ahead, go up, greaten, grow, guzzler, hike, hike up, huff, increase, inebriate, inflate, inflation, intensify, intumescence, lush, magnify, meteorism, mount, multiply, overdistension, overdrawing, overexpansion, overextension, overstrain, overstraining, overstretching, proliferate, puff, puff up, puffiness, puffing, pump, pump up, raise, rarefy, rise, run up, shoot up, snapping point, snowball, soak, sot, sponge, spread, strain, straining, strengthen, stretch, stretching, sufflate, swell, swellage, swelling, swollenness, tension, tippler, tumefaction, tumefy, tumescence, tumidity, tumidness, turgescence, turgidity, turgidness, tympanism, tympany, up, wax, widen, windiness