[syn: balloon, inflate, billow]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Inflate \In*flate"\, p. a. [L. inflatus, p. p. of inflare to
   inflate; pref. in- in + flare to blow. See Blow to puff
   wind.]
   Blown in; inflated. --Chaucer.
   [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Inflate \In*flate"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Inflated; p. pr. &
   vb. n. Inflating.]
   1. To swell or distend with air or gas; to dilate; to expand;
      to enlarge; as, to inflate a bladder; to inflate the
      lungs.
      [1913 Webster]
            When passion's tumults in the bosom rise,
            Inflate the features, and enrage the eyes. --J.
                                                  Scott of
                                                  Amwell.
      [1913 Webster]
   2. Fig.: To swell; to puff up; to elate; as, to inflate one
      with pride or vanity.
      [1913 Webster]
            Inflate themselves with some insane delight.
                                                  --Tennyson.
      [1913 Webster]
   3. To cause to become unduly expanded or increased; as, to
      inflate the currency.
      [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Inflate \In*flate"\, v. i.
   To expand; to fill; to distend.
   [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
inflate
    v 1: exaggerate or make bigger; "The charges were inflated"
         [syn: inflate, blow up, expand, amplify]
    2: fill with gas or air; "inflate a balloons" [syn: inflate,
       blow up] [ant: deflate]
    3: cause prices to rise by increasing the available currency or
       credit; "The war inflated the economy" [ant: deflate]
    4: increase the amount or availability of, creating a rise in
       value; "inflate the currency" [ant: deflate]
    5: become inflated; "The sails ballooned" [syn: balloon,
       inflate, billow]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
65 Moby Thesaurus words for "inflate":
   Barnumize, add to, aggrandize, amplify, augment, balloon, bloat,
   blow, blow up, bombast, boost, broaden, build, build up, bulk,
   bulk out, crescendo, develop, dilate, distend, enlarge, exaggerate,
   exalt, expand, extend, fatten, fill out, hike, hike up, huff,
   increase, jack up, jump up, lay it on, lengthen, magnify, maximize,
   overdevelop, overdistend, overdraw, overexpand, overextend,
   overstrain, overstretch, parlay, pile it on, pontificate, puff,
   puff up, pump, pump up, put up, pyramid, raise, rarefy, strain,
   stretch, sufflate, swell, talk big, talk highfalutin, thicken, up,
   vapor, widen
The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):
inflate
 vt.
    To decompress or puff a file. Rare among Internet hackers, used primarily
    by MS-DOS/Windows types.
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
deflate
deflate compression
deflate/inflate compression
inflate
    A compression standard derived
   from LZ77; it is reportedly used in zip, gzip, PKZIP,
   and png, among others.
   Unlike LZW, deflate compression does not use patented
   compression algorithms.
   Used as a verb to mean to compress (not decompress!) a file
   which has been compressed using deflate compression.  The
   opposite, inflate, means to decompress data which has been
   deflated.
   Deflate is described in RFC 1951.
   (1997-06-21)