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The act or process of inflating, or the state of being inflated, as with air or gas; distention; expansion; enlargement. Boyle.

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

Having greatness, fullness, importance, inflation, distention, etc., whether in a good or a bad sense; as, a big heart; a big voice; big looks; to look big. As applied to looks, it indicates haughtiness or pride. God hath not in heaven a bigger argument. Jer. Taylor.

To form by inflation; to swell by injecting air; as, to blow bubbles; to blow glass.

atheter, a tubular instrument to be introduced into the Eustachian tube so as to allow of inflation of the middle ear through the nose or mouth. -- Eustrachian tube (Anat.), a passage from the tympanum of the ear to the pharynx. See Ear. -- Eustachian valve (Anat.), a crescent-shaped fold of the lining membrane of th…

A blowing or breathing into; inflation; inspiration. The divine breath that blows the nostrils out To ineffable inflatus. Mrs. Browning.

losed substance; as, the legs swell in dropsy; a bruised part swells; a bladder swells by inflation.

Empty magnificence or pompousness; inflation; bombast; turgidity. Johnson.

Hence, inflation; conceit; bombast; turgidness. "Thine 's a tympany of sense." Dryden. A plethoric a tautologic tympany of sentence. De Quincey.

An inflation of mind upon slight grounds; empty pride inspired by an overweening conceit of one's personal attainments or decorations; an excessive desire for notice or approval; pride; ostentation; conceit. The exquisitely sensitive vanity of Garrick was galled. Macaulay.