*inflat*

n. an unusually rapid rate of monetary inflation, as when prices rise more than 100 per cent per year. A famous example occurred in Germany after the first World War, reaching its peak in the period 1923. When the hyperinflation ended by 1924, the value of the mark had decreased by more than one trillion times compared to its value in 1914. Periods of lesser hyperinflation have occurred in many other countries, as in Russia in 1994. [ PJC ]

a. That may be inflated. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To expand; to fill; to distend. [ 1913 Webster ]

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 ]

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 ]

a. 1. Filled, as with air or gas; blown up; distended; as, a balloon inflated with gas. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Turgid; swelling; puffed up; bombastic; pompous; as, an inflated style. [ 1913 Webster ]

Inflated and astrut with self-conceit. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Bot.) Hollow and distended, as a perianth, corolla, nectary, or pericarp. Martyn. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Distended or enlarged fictitiously or without due cause; as, inflated prices; inflated expectations, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who, or that which, inflates; as, the inflaters of the stock exchange. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a manner tending to inflate. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. inflatio: cf. F. inflation. ] 1. The act or process of inflating, or the state of being inflated, as with air or gas; distention; expansion; enlargement. Boyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The state of being puffed up, as with pride; conceit; vanity. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Persistent expansion or increase in the general level of prices, usually caused by overissue of currency, and resulting in a reduced value of the currency. It is contrasted with deflation, and is when it occurs to a very high degree is called hyperinflation. [ U.S. ] [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

n. One who favors an increased or very large issue of paper money. [ U.S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]