deflate

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /diːˈfleɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: de‧flate
• Rhymes: -eɪt

deflate (third-person singular simple present deflates, present participle deflating, simple past and past participle deflated)

1. (transitive) To remove air or some other gas from within an elastic container, e.g. a balloon or tyre.

   Coordinate terms: deaerate, deair

2. (transitive) To cause an object to decrease or become smaller in some parameter, e.g. to shrink
3. (transitive, economics) To reduce the amount of available currency or credit and thus lower prices.
4. (intransitive) To become deflated.
5. (transitive) To let (someone) down, disappoint (them), or put (them) in (their) place.

   deflate someone's ego

   • 2021 June 14, Scott Mullen, “Scotland 0-2 Czech Republic”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Scotland's first match at a men's major finals in 23 years ended in anguish after Patrik Schick's incredible halfway-line goal helped the Czech Republic inflict a deflating opening Euro 2020 defeat at Hampden.

6. (transitive, computing) To compress (data) according to a particular algorithm.
   • 2003, Alan D Johnson, “unzip utility on HPUX”, in comp.sys.hp.hpux (Usenet):

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

7. (slang) To belch or flatulate

• inflate