Definition of Puff up

1. Verb. Make larger or distend. "The estimates were puffed up"

Generic synonyms: Amplify, Blow Up, Expand, Inflate

2. Verb. To swell or cause to enlarge,. "Did his feet puff up?"; "Puffed out chests"
Exact synonyms: Blow Up, Puff, Puff Out
Generic synonyms: Intumesce, Swell, Swell Up, Tumefy, Tumesce
Derivative terms: Puffer

3. Verb. Become filled with pride, arrogance, or anger. "The mother was swelling with importance when she spoke of her son"
Exact synonyms: Swell
Generic synonyms: Act, Behave, Do

4. Verb. Praise extravagantly. "The critics puffed up this Broadway production"
Exact synonyms: Puff
Generic synonyms: Praise
Derivative terms: Puff

Definition of Puff up

1. Verb. To inflate with air. ¹

2. Verb. To swell due to injury or illness. ¹

3. Verb. To become proud. (Often written as '''puffed up with pride.''') ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Puff Up

puff-leg
puff-legged
puff-legs
puff-pastry
puff adder
puff batter
puff of air
puff out
puff paste
puff pastries
puff pastry
puff piece
puff pieces
puff the magic dragon
puff up
puffadder
puffadders
puffball
puffbird
puffbirds
puffed
puffed-rice
puffed out
puffed rice
puffed up
puffed wheat
puffer
pufferbellies

Literary usage of Puff up

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. A concise Anglo-Saxon dictionary for the use of students by John R. Clark Hall (1916)
"... disperse, scatter, to blow to pieces, blast, scatter, M : puff up, open, dilate : multiply, ... puff up ..."

2. A Dictionary of the English Language: Abridged from the American Dictionary by Noah Webster (1833)
"In put into a bag, swell, puff up. Back, n. the hinder pan, rear, thick part. Boch'-e-lor-ship, n. the state of a bachelor. Back, vt to mount, second, ..."

3. Letters on Religious Subjects, Written by Divers Friends, Deceased: First by John Kendall (1831)
"... Accumulated knowledge is apt to puff up, and that beautiful simplicity of manners into which truth leads, may be unhappily departed from. ..."

4. Paul Richards' Book of Breads, Cakes, Pastries, Ices and Sweetmeats by Paul Richards (1907)
"The paste should puff up like a rose. Fill with a little jelly, and decorate with royal icing. 395—PARISIENNES. Take puff paste which has got only four ..."

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