Balloon: From Party Rubber to Rising Costs
A balloon is a bag filled with air or gas. As a verb it means to swell or increase quickly, which is how budgets, debts and waistlines get described.
A balloon is a flexible bag that expands when filled. Children have them at parties, meteorologists release them, and comic strips draw them around speech. The verb kept the shape and dropped the object: anything that swells fast can balloon.
- An inflated rubber toy. *The room was full of balloons.*
- A large bag lifting a basket. *They crossed the valley by hot-air balloon.*
- A drawn outline containing speech. *His words appeared in a speech balloon.*
- To swell or grow rapidly (verb). *Costs ballooned to twice the estimate.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | balloon | A red balloon. |
| Verb | balloon | The deficit ballooned. |
| Adjective | ballooning | Ballooning costs. |
| Person | balloonist | An early balloonist. |
| Compound | balloon payment | A balloon payment at the end of the loan. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Her legal fees ballooned over three years.The verb almost always describes unwelcome growth.
- They floated a trial balloon before announcing the policy.A test idea, released to see the reaction.
- The goalkeeper ballooned the ball over the bar.Sport sense — kicked it high and wildly.
Balloon in other phrases
- Go down like a lead balloon — fail completely, said of a joke or plan
- When the balloon goes up — when trouble finally starts
- Trial balloon — an idea released to test opinion
- Balloon payment — a large final instalment on a loan
From Italian *ballone*, a large ball. The word was in English for a football-sized object long before the Montgolfier brothers put one in the sky in 1783; that flight simply gave the old word its most famous meaning.
Why lead balloon?
A balloon made of lead could never rise. The phrase describes something that drops the moment it is released.
Is ballooning always negative?
As a verb, nearly always. Ballooning debts and ballooning costs are common; ballooning profits sounds odd.