Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🤥 To exaggerate 🎈 To fill with air 💹 To raise value 💾 To decompress
to inflate

to inflate

44 2.9
To fill something with air so it becomes larger and round
  • verb
  • /ɪnˈfleɪt/
translation icon : inflar
  • Make sure to inflate your air mattress before our camping trip tonight.
  • inflate a balloon
  • inflate a tire
  • inflate with air

Then I left my mattress to inflate and came home to that handprint.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • In this case, air flows through the valve to inflate a patient's abdomen.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Will you please inflate your balloon?

    The Hypnotic Eye (1960)

  • Pull the red cord to inflate your life jacket.

    Paddington in Peru (2024)

  • They'd inflate their crafts to just the right pressure and share the river with us.

    Ocean to Sky (2019)

  • Honey, I have this really cool self-inflating mattress.

    The Oranges (2011)

  • You'll become involved as a crew member helping to inflate the balloons and prepare for lift-off.

    Academic text (2000)

  • Each of the tires was pneumatic and was inflated to the manufacturer's recommended pressure.

    Academic text (1995)

  • Overnight, the crew had tested all systems and inflated the balloons with helium.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Get that RIB inflated!

    Expend4bles (2023)

  • Inflating your tires, sir.

    The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)

Synonyms

to fill
vsto inflate
∞ 1.0

To make a place full by putting people or things into it

is limited to filling with air or gas to cause expansion
to blow up
vsto inflate
23 2.7

To fill something with air or gas until it gets larger

is the same action but often expressed as a single word form
to fill up
vsto inflate
19 1.8

Make something have no empty space or cause a strong feeling in someone

is narrower, meaning filling with air or gas to make larger

Antonyms

to deflate
18 3.1

To let air out of something so it becomes smaller or loses its shape

How Inflated

to inflate
44 2.9
to deflate
18 3.1

Surface Forms

inflate infinitive
inflated past
inflated past participle
inflating present participle
inflates third person singular

Morphology

inflate = flate (semi-transparent) = in + flate

The verb shows the visible prefix 'in-' plus a bound root 'flate' which is not a standalone word; learners get partial cues to the meaning but may not recognise the root form.

Etymology

Inflate comes from the Latin parts in- 'into' and flare 'to blow', so imagine blowing air 'into' a balloon. That's why to inflate something is to fill it with air or gas until it becomes larger.