balloon

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun 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.
• noun Such a bag with sufficient capacity to lift and transport a suspended gondola or other load.
• noun Such a bag shaped like a figure or object when inflated; an inflatable.
• noun A usually round or oblong inflatable rubber bag used as a toy or decoration.
• noun Medicine An inflatable device that is inserted into a body cavity or structure and distended with air or gas for therapeutic purposes, such as angioplasty.
• noun A rounded or irregularly shaped outline containing the words that a character in a cartoon is represented to be saying.
• noun A balloon payment.
• intransitive verb To ascend or ride in a balloon.
• intransitive verb To expand or swell out like a balloon. synonym: bulge.
• intransitive verb To increase or rise quickly.
• intransitive verb To cause to expand by or as if by inflating.
• adjective Suggestive of a balloon, as in shape.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In cricket and base-ball, a lofty hit which gives a fielder the chance to catch a batsman out.
• noun In spinning, the convex curve assumed by yarn on a ring-frame.
• To carry up or transport in, or as in, a balloon.
• To distend with air, gas, or water, as the abdomen in tympanites, or the rectum or vagina with specially constructed apparatus.
• To make ascents in a balloon.
• To swell out like a balloon; in ring-spinning, to fly outward centrifugally from the spindle: said of yarn.
• noun A state barge of Siam, made in fanciful imitation of a sea-monster, and having 70 to 100 oars on a side.
• noun A large inflated ball of leather, used in playing certain games; a game played with such a ball.
• noun In chem., a round vessel with a short neck, used as a receiver in distillation; a glass receiver of a spherical form.
• noun In architecture, a ball or globe on the top of a pillar.
• noun 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.
• noun 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.
• noun 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.
• noun In comic engravings, a figure shaped like a balloon and inclosing words which are represented as issuing from the mouth of a speaker.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun 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.
• noun (Arch.), rare A ball or globe on the top of a pillar, church, etc., as at St. Paul's, in London.
• noun (Chem.) A round vessel, usually with a short neck, to hold or receive whatever is distilled; a glass vessel of a spherical form.
• noun (Pyrotechnics), obsolete A bomb or shell.
• noun obsolete A game played with a large inflated ball.
• noun (Engraving) The outline inclosing words represented as coming from the mouth of a pictured figure.
• noun a balloon for aërial navigation.
• noun (Carp.) a house frame constructed altogether of small timber.
• noun a variety of woven lace in which the weft threads are twisted in a peculiar manner around the warp.
• intransitive verb To go up or voyage in a balloon.
• intransitive verb To expand, or puff out, like a balloon.
• transitive verb To take up in, or as if in, a balloon.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun large tough nonrigid bag filled with gas or heated air
• noun small thin inflatable rubber bag with narrow neck
• verb become inflated