Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To release contained air or gas from.
  • intransitive verb To collapse by releasing contained air or gas.
  • intransitive verb To reduce or lessen the size or importance of.
  • intransitive verb To reduce the amount or availability of (currency or credit), effecting a decline in prices.
  • intransitive verb To produce deflation in (an economy).
  • intransitive verb To be or become deflated.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To remove the air from: the opposite of inflate.

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

  • transitive verb To reduce from an inflated condition; used literally and metaphorically.

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

  • verb transitive To cause an object to decrease or become smaller in some parameter, e.g. to shrink
  • verb transitive (economics) To reduce the amount of available currency or credit and thus lower prices.
  • verb intransitive To become deflated.
  • verb transitive To let down or disappoint.

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

  • verb release contained air or gas from
  • verb reduce or cut back the amount or availability of, creating a decline in value or prices
  • verb produce deflation in
  • verb become deflated or flaccid, as by losing air
  • verb collapse by releasing contained air or gas
  • verb reduce or lessen the size or importance of

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[de– + (in)flate.]

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Examples

  • Drop the dough in (it will deflate, which is fine) and spread it vaguely around the pan.

    The Paupered Chef 2009

  • The AHA363-PCIE adapter card is compliant with open standard compression algorithm GZIP - also known as deflate - for the highest performance of any hardware compression solution on the market today.

    Digital50.com Digital 50 Daily Industry News RSS Feed 2009

  • One sexual partner will "deflate" one end of the blossom by squeezing all the internal fluid to the other end, then insert the deflated end inside her vagina.

    PYA: GLOSSARY FROM SKENISH TO ENGLISH Maggie Jochild 2004

  • One sexual partner will "deflate" one end of the blossom by squeezing all the internal fluid to the other end, then insert the deflated end inside her vagina.

    Archive 2004-08-08 Maggie Jochild 2004

  • Second, it is well known that the inflation index used to "deflate" wage increases, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), has a built in overstatement

    Denver Post: News: Breaking: Local Molon Labe 2010

  • Second, it is well known that the inflation index used to "deflate" wage increases, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), has a built in overstatement

    Denver Post: News: Breaking: Local 2010

  • · Includes integrated support for "deflate", bzip2, and 7-Zip LZMA file compression.

    Softpedia - Windows - All Softpedia Windows 2010

  • Installation of files: Includes integrated support for "deflate", bzip2, and 7-Zip LZMA file compression.

    FileHippo.com 2010

  • · Includes integrated support for "deflate", bzip2, and 7-Zip LZMA file compression.

    Softpedia - Windows - All Softpedia Windows 2010

  • Second, it is well known that the inflation index used to "deflate" wage increases, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), has a built in overstatement

    Denver Post: News: Breaking: Local Nixon 2010

Comments

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  • To let the air out. The the ball was deflated after throwing it at the car.

    December 6, 2010