Other forms: inflated, inflating, inflates
To inflate is to fill with air, or to push a price up. Inflate the tyres, inflate the figures, an inflated claim.
The figurative sense is the sharper one: to inflate figures is to make them bigger than the truth, and an inflated reputation is one bigger than the work behind it. Tyres are the everyday literal use, and most drivers inflate theirs too little.
1verbinflateTo fill with air, or to push a price up.
“The children helped to inflate the balloons for the party.”
inflate is a filling, or a raising.
Latin inflare means to blow into — in plus flare, to blow. Flatulence is a relative.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰleh₁-
Latin
īnflātus
English, today
inflate
From Latin īnflātus, perfect passive participle of īnflō, see -ate. a doublet of inblow.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA