PUFF UP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does puff up mean? 

• PUFF UP (verb)
  The verb PUFF UP has 4 senses:

1. make larger or distend

2. to swell or cause to enlarge

3. become filled with pride, arrogance, or anger

4. praise extravagantly

  Familiarity information: PUFF UP used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PUFF UP (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make larger or distend

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

The estimates were puffed up

Hypernyms (to "puff up" is one way to...):

amplify; blow up; expand; inflate (exaggerate or make bigger)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

To swell or cause to enlarge

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

blow up; puff; puff out; puff up

Context example:

puffed out chests

Hypernyms (to "puff up" is one way to...):

intumesce; swell; swell up; tumefy; tumesce (expand abnormally)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

Did his feet puff up?

Sense 3

Meaning:

Become filled with pride, arrogance, or anger

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

puff up; swell

Context example:

The mother was swelling with importance when she spoke of her son

Hypernyms (to "puff up" is one way to...):

act; behave; do (behave in a certain manner; show a certain behavior; conduct or comport oneself)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 4

Meaning:

Praise extravagantly

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

puff; puff up

Context example:

The critics puffed up this Broadway production

Hypernyms (to "puff up" is one way to...):

praise (express approval of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

Once they run out of this fuel, they puff up into red giants, becoming hundreds of times larger and engulfing nearby planets.

(First Giant Planet around White Dwarf Found, ESO)

Don’t heat up a relationship too fast because it is likely to puff up and then puff out just as quickly.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

As stars like our sun age, they puff up into red giants and then gradually lose about half their mass, shrinking down to 1/100th of their original size to roughly the size of Earth.

(K2 Finds Dead Star Vaporizing a Mini 'Planet', NASA)

One known source of cosmic dust is AGB stars, or stars with about the mass of the Sun that are running out of fuel and puff up to many times their original size to form a red giant star. (AGB stars are one type of red giant star.)

(Exploding Stars Make Key Ingredient in Sand, Glass, NASA)