bubble

Pluralbubbles

Formsbubbles, bubbling, bubbled

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A small, usually rounded pocket of air or gas enclosed in a liquid, a solid material, or a thin film, as in a soap bubble or the bubble in a spirit level.

   A single soap bubble drifted upward and caught the light before popping.

   Children chased the bubbles across the lawn until they vanished.

   UsageYou blow bubbles; bubbles burst or pop.

2. 2
   boil (liquids)verbintransitive

   To produce bubbles, or to rise upward in bubbles, as foods do when cooking or liquids do when boiling.

   The thick stew started to bubble gently over low heat.

   Hot springs bubble where gases escape from underground.

   UsageOften bubble away or bubble up: the stew bubbled away on the stove.

   Similarboil, simmer, fizz, froth, gurgle

   Note

   The literal verb reaches beyond the kitchen. A surface can bubble too, as in the laminate is bubbling, when trapped air or gas lifts it from beneath. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • Trapped air beneath laminate can lift its surface into a bubble. brentproducts.co.uk
3. 3
   price boomnouncountable

   A period of intense market speculation in which prices rise far above underlying value, typically ending in a sudden, sharp fall when confidence collapses.

   Like a soap film stretching thinner as it swells, certain to burst the moment it grows too large.

   The dot-com bubble pushed stock prices far beyond what the companies were worth.

   Investors who bought near the peak of the bubble suffered heavy losses.

   UsageA bubble inflates, grows and bursts; it is usually named for what is overbought: a housing bubble, the dot-com bubble.

   Similarboom

   Note

   Markets borrow the soap film's whole life: a bubble inflates, expands and finally bursts, and those verbs travel with the noun. The label is a judgment about prices, not a measurement.

4. 4
   private worldnounfigurativelycountable

   The emotional or physical atmosphere that surrounds and encloses a person, separating them from the wider world.

   Living in a bubble of wealth, he had no idea how ordinary people struggled.

   The team spent the season in its own bubble, shut off from outside distractions.

   UsageOften live in a bubble, a bubble of something. Burst someone's bubble means spoil their happy illusion.

   Similaratmosphere

   Note

   Applied to a person's surroundings, the image is a thin wall that keeps the world out. A modifier can also name who shares it, as in news media bubbles or the right-wing Facebook bubble, a use that usually implies hearing only one's own views.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   Any rounded, hollow object that resembles a sphere.

   A glass bubble enclosed the delicate clock mechanism.

   The diver's helmet was a clear bubble of reinforced plastic.

   Similardome, globe, sphere

6. 6
   verbfigurativelyintransitive

   Of a feeling or emotion, to churn or seethe inside someone as if rising toward the surface; also, to stir such a feeling in someone.

   As the meeting dragged on, she could feel anger bubble inside her until she finally spoke up.

   Discontent bubbled through the ranks long before the strike.

   UsageOften with up or inside: anger bubbled up; it bubbled inside her.

   Similarsimmer, seethe, boil, churn, brew

   Note

   Feelings are the usual subject here, such as rage, grievances or dark possibilities, and the verb pictures them pressing up from below. In Elizabeth Gaskell's Ruth (1853), blood "bubbled up to her brain" with a sound of boiling waters. Compared with seethe, bubble suggests something still contained but close to breaking through. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Elizabeth Gaskell wrote Ruth, first published in 1853. en.wikipedia.org
   • The narrator describes blood bubbling up to Ruth's brain and sounding like boiling waters; the quoted wording is exact. gutenberg.org
7. 7
   rise throughverbfigurativelyintransitive

   To rise gradually through a medium or system, in the way that bubbles ascend through liquid.

   Promising recruits slowly bubble up through the organization's lower tiers.

   Rumors bubbled through the office before any official announcement.

   UsageUsually bubble up: ideas bubble up from the bottom of an organization.

   Similarrise, percolate, filter, circulate, spread

   Note

   Programmers have made this a working term. In the fourth edition of David Flanagan's JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, an event "bubbles up the document tree," passing from the most deeply nested element to its ancestors. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • David Flanagan wrote JavaScript: The Definitive Guide. oreilly.com
   • Flanagan uses the exact phrase "bubbles up the document tree" about an event. oreilly.com
   • Event bubbling proceeds upward from the target element through its ancestors. w3.org
8. 8
   nouncountable

   The cutoff point in a competition separating those who qualify, advance, or win a prize from those who are eliminated; on the bubble means right at that point.

   The college was squarely on the bubble when the selection committee met.

   A late loss dropped them below the bubble and out of contention.

   UsageAlso above or below the bubble; coverage of who is near the line is a bubble watch.

   Note

   Away from the card table, the same threshold sorts teams for qualification, advancement or invitation. Teams on the bubble are the ones whose next result could put them in or out, and poker players use the same phrase for the last places before the prize money.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   A controlled, isolated group of people, and sometimes the places they use, kept apart from everyone else to limit the spread of infection.

   Like a sealed dome around a community, keeping the outside world from getting in.

   The league created a bubble where athletes, staff, and hotels were sealed off from outsiders.

   Schools tried to keep each class in its own bubble.

   UsageOften with a possessive: my bubble, our bubble; you form or join a bubble.

   Note

   The pandemic gave the word a new job: a group sealed off together to limit infection became a bubble, whether a sports league, a school class or a household. A 2020 dispute reported in the Herald turned on exactly that: "Whose bubble am I supposed to infect?" The word can name the arrangement or, as with the entire bubble sharing meals, the people inside it. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • The COVID-19 pandemic introduced this use of bubble for a group isolating together to limit infection. researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz
   • A 2020 New Zealand Herald report about a landlord–tenant dispute quoted Mark Philip saying these exact words; Wiktionary dates the report to 7 April 2020. en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    speak cheerfullyverbtransitive

    To express something in a lively, enthusiastic, and cheerful manner.

    Still glowing from the wedding, the bride would bubble to anyone who asked that it had been the best day of her life.

    She bubbled her congratulations across the crowded room.

    UsageOften used like said after a quotation, or with the message as object: she bubbled her thanks.

    Similargush

    Note

    Fiction uses it as a cheerful speaking verb. It can frame quoted speech, as in Mollie Molay's Daddy by Christmas: "She's a little girl like me," Beth bubbled. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Mollie Molay's Daddy by Christmas contains the quoted dialogue, spoken by Beth. en.wiktionary.org
11. 11
    verbtransitive

    To push or form something into a rounded, protruding shape, or to cover a surface with bubbles.

    Intense heat will bubble the varnish into raised blisters.

    Water had seeped under the floor and bubbled the cheap laminate near the kitchen sink.

    Similarblister

    Note

    Lips are where this verb most often turns up: she bubbled her lips at Junior, pushing them out into a rounded pout. It can also describe something swelling fabric outward, as when something bubbled her blouses. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • The example involving lips and Junior is attested. en.wiktionary.org
    • The example involving blouses is attested. en.wiktionary.org

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