| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| bloat |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  bl t |
| VERB: | Inflected forms: bloat·ed, bloat·ing, bloats
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To cause to swell up or inflate, as with liquid or gas. 2. To cure (fish) by soaking in brine and half-drying in smoke. | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | To become swollen or inflated: “Government had bloated out of control” (Lance Morrow). | | NOUN: | 1. A swelling of the rumen or intestinal tract of cattle and domestic animals that is caused by excessive gas formation following fermentation of ingested watery legumes or green forage. 2. An excess or surfeit, as of employees, expenses, or procedures: corporate bloat. | | ETYMOLOGY: | From Middle English blout, soft, puffed, from Old Norse blautr, soft, soaked. See bhleu- in Appendix I.
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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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