deflate
English edit
Etymology edit
de- + (in)flate. Coined in 1891, in reference to balloons. Partly based on Latin deflo, deflare (perfect passive participle deflatus), which meant "blow away".
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
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deflate (third-person singular simple present deflates, present participle deflating, simple past and past participle deflated)
- (transitive) To remove air or some other gas from within an elastic container, e.g. a balloon or tyre.
- (transitive) To cause an object to decrease or become smaller in some parameter, e.g. to shrink
- (transitive, economics) To reduce the amount of available currency or credit and thus lower prices.
- (intransitive) To become deflated.
- (transitive) To let (someone) down, disappoint (them), or put (them) in (their) place.
- deflate someone's ego
- 2021 June 14, Scott Mullen, “Scotland 0-2 Czech Republic”, in BBC Sport[1]:
- Scotland's first match at a men's major finals in 23 years ended in anguish after Patrik Schick's incredible halfway-line goal helped the Czech Republic inflict a deflating opening Euro 2020 defeat at Hampden.
- (transitive, computing) To compress (data) according to a particular algorithm.
- 2003, Alan D Johnson, “unzip utility on HPUX”, in comp.sys.hp.hpux (Usenet):
- Never had a problem, guess I've never had to deflate multiple files!
- (slang) To belch or flatulate
Antonyms edit
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
reduction, usually in volume
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