puffing up
Expanding with air
Puffing up describes the action of swelling, inflating, or expanding outward, whether physically or figuratively.
Birds puff up their feathers for warmth or display; bread dough puffs up as it rises.
Applied to people, puffing up usually suggests inflating with pride or self-importance: He was all puffed up after the promotion.
The phrase can also describe making something seem larger or more impressive than it actually is: The resume was puffed up with exaggerated accomplishments.
- ballooningSwelling or aerial drifting
- hot air balloonGas-heated fabric vessel
- expandingGrowing in scope
- billowingPuffing out dramatically
- inflatingCausing to expand
swelling · filling out · bloating · bulging · hubris · distended · vanity · big head · dramatization · amplifying · conceit · full of hot air · enlarging · hyperbole · overstatement · self-aggrandizement · tooting one's horn · pretentiousness
- animal defensespoison, venom, toxin, toxins, horns
- exaggerationhyperbole, overstatement, exaggeration, magnification, amplification
- size changesenlarge, enlargement, expand, expansion, shrink
- survival adaptationsmimicry, camouflage, hibernation, venom, poison
- territorialityscent marking, marking, guarding, defending, border disputes
- animal behaviorsswimming, running, walking, jumping, flying
puffing updeflating
Releasing contained gas
collapsing · shrinking · flattening · subsiding · reducing
puffing uphumbling
Diminishing one's pride
deflating · bringing down a peg · humiliating · cutting down to size · putting down
puffing updownplaying
Diminishing perceived significance
minimizing · understating · deflating · playing down · diminishing
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