verb, slang ·2 syllables ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To remove air or some other gas from within an elastic container, e.g. a balloon or tyre. transitive
2. 2
   become deflated or flaccid, as by losing air wordnet
3. 3
   To cause an object to decrease or become smaller in some parameter, e.g. to shrink transitive
4. 4
   reduce or cut back the amount or availability of, creating a decline in value or prices wordnet
5. 5
   To reduce the amount of available currency or credit and thus lower prices. transitive

Show 8 more definitions

6. 6
   produce deflation in wordnet
7. 7
   To become deflated. intransitive
8. 8
   reduce or lessen the size or importance of wordnet
9. 9
   To let (someone) down, disappoint them, or put them in their place. transitive

   "deflate someone's ego"

10. 10
    release contained air or gas from wordnet
11. 11
    To compress (data) according to a particular algorithm. transitive

    "Never had a problem, guess I've never had to deflate multiple files!"

12. 12
    collapse by releasing contained air or gas wordnet
13. 13
    To belch or flatulate slang

Synonyms

All synonyms

abridgeattenuatebeat downbelieblow sky-highblow up

Antonyms

All antonyms

inflate

Example

More examples

"How do you deflate this floaty?"

Etymology

From de- + (in)flate. Coined in 1891, in reference to balloons. Equivalent to Latin dē- (“away, from”) + Latin flō (“blow”) + -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Related phrases

let down

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.