/bloht/ , v.t.
1. to expand or distend, as with air, water, etc.; cause to swell: Overeating bloated their bellies.
2. to puff up; make vain or conceited: The promotion has bloated his ego to an alarming degree.
3. to cure (fishes) as bloaters.
v.i.
4. to become swollen; be puffed out or dilated: The carcass started to bloat.
n.
5. Also called hoven . Vet. Pathol. (in cattle, sheep, and horses) a distention of the rumen or paunch or of the large colon by gases of fermentation, caused by eating ravenously of green forage, esp. legumes.
6. a person or thing that is bloated.
7. bloater (defs. 1, 2).
[ 1250-1300; earlier bloat (adj.) soft, puffy, ME blout blautr wet, soft ]
Syn. 1. swell, inflate, enlarge, balloon.