balloon

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A flexible bag designed to be inflated with hot air or with a gas, such as helium, that is lighter than the surrounding air, causing it to rise and float in the atmosphere.
2. n. Such a bag with sufficient capacity to lift and transport a suspended gondola or other load.
3. n. Such a bag shaped like a figure or object when inflated; an inflatable.
4. n. A usually round or oblong inflatable rubber bag used as a toy.
5. n. Medicine A sac that is inserted into a body cavity or tube and distended with air or gas for therapeutic purposes, such as angioplasty.
6. n. A rounded or irregularly shaped outline containing the words that a character in a cartoon is represented to be saying.
7. v. To ascend or ride in a balloon.
8. v. To expand or swell out like a balloon. See Synonyms at bulge.
9. v. To increase or rise quickly.
10. v. To cause to expand by or as if by inflating.
11. adj. Suggestive of a balloon, as in shape: balloon curtains.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A large inflated ball of leather, used in playing certain games; a game played with such a ball. It was tossed to and fro by either hand or foot, the hand being defended by a guard (balloon-brasser). See foot-ball.
2. n. In chem., a round vessel with a short neck, used as a receiver in distillation; a glass receiver of a spherical form.
3. n. In architecture, a ball or globe on the top of a pillar.
4. n. In pyrotechnics, a ball of pasteboard or a kind of bomb stuffed with combustibles, which, bursting like a bomb, exhibits sparks of fire like stars.
5. n. In weaving, a cylindrical reel on which sized woolen yarn for warp is wound in order to be dried by rapid revolution in a heated chamber.
6. n. A bag or hollow vessel filled with hydrogen gas or heated air, or any other gaseous fluid lighter than common air, and thus caused to rise and float in the atmosphere. It is made of silk or other light material, varnished with caoutchouc dissolved in turpentine. A network of twine envelops the balloon, and is tied to a circular hoop a little below it, from which a car, usually consisting of a large wicker basket, is suspended. A valve in the bottom of the balloon can be opened and closed at pleasure by means of a string, and the basket is furnished with sand-bags as ballast. If the aëronaut wishes to ascend, he throws out some of the ballast; if to descend, he opens the valve. Balloons have been successfully used for military purposes (see captive, balloon, below), and, in the case of besieged cities, as a medium of communication with the outside world.
7. n. In comic engravings, a figure shaped like a balloon and inclosing words which are represented as issuing from the mouth of a speaker.
8. n. A state barge of Siam, made in fanciful imitation of a sea-monster, and having 70 to 100 oars on a side.
9. n. In cricket and base-ball, a lofty hit which gives a fielder the chance to catch a batsman out.
10. n. In spinning, the convex curve assumed by yarn on a ring-frame.
11. To carry up or transport in, or as in, a balloon.
12. To distend with air, gas, or water, as the abdomen in tympanites, or the rectum or vagina with specially constructed apparatus.
13. To make ascents in a balloon.
14. To swell out like a balloon; in ring-spinning, to fly outward centrifugally from the spindle: said of yarn.

Wiktionary

1. n. An inflatable buoyant object, often (but not necessarily) round and flexible.
2. n. Such an object as a child’s toy.
3. n. Such an object designed to transport people through the air.
4. n. medicine A sac inserted into part of the body for therapeutic reasons; such as angioplasty.
5. n. A speech bubble.
6. n. A type of glass cup, sometimes used for brandy.
7. v. intransitive To increase or expand rapidly.
8. v. To go up or voyage in a balloon.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A bag made of silk or other light material, and filled with hydrogen gas or heated air, so as to rise and float in the atmosphere; especially, one with a car attached for aërial navigation.
2. n. (Arch.), rare A ball or globe on the top of a pillar, church, etc., as at St. Paul's, in London.
3. n. (Chem.) A round vessel, usually with a short neck, to hold or receive whatever is distilled; a glass vessel of a spherical form.
4. n. (Pyrotechnics), obsolete A bomb or shell.
5. n. obsolete A game played with a large inflated ball.
6. n. (Engraving) The outline inclosing words represented as coming from the mouth of a pictured figure.
7. v. To take up in, or as if in, a balloon.
8. v. To go up or voyage in a balloon.
9. v. To expand, or puff out, like a balloon.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. large tough nonrigid bag filled with gas or heated air
2. n. small thin inflatable rubber bag with narrow neck
3. v. become inflated
4. v. ride in a hot-air balloon