<p><strong>Verb</strong></p><ul><li>(used with object) to expand or distend, as with air, water, etc.; cause to swell: Overeating bloated their bellies.</li><li>Synonyms: balloon, enlarge, inflate, swell</li><li>to puff up; make vain or conceited: The promotion has bloated his ego to an alarming degree.</li><li>to cure (fishes) as bloaters.</li><li>(used without object) to become swollen; be puffed out or dilated: The carcass started to bloat.</li></ul><p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>Also called hoven.</li><li>Veterinary Pathology: (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, especially legumes.</li><li>a person or thing that is bloated.</li><li>bloater (defs 1, 2).</li></ul>