# bubble

Pronunciation: say "BUB-uhl" US /ˈbʌb.l̩/, AUS /ˈbʌbl̩/; UK

## Noun

1. 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.
   - Simple: A small pocket of air or gas inside a liquid, a solid, or a thin film.
   - _A single soap bubble drifted upward and caught the light before popping._
   - _Children chased the bubbles across the lawn until they vanished._
3. A period of intense market speculation in which prices rise far above underlying value, typically ending in a sudden, sharp fall when confidence collapses.
   - Simple: A time when prices rise far above what things are really worth, often ending in a sudden crash.
   - _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._
4. The emotional or physical atmosphere that surrounds and encloses a person, separating them from the wider world.
   - Simple: A private world of feelings or surroundings that keeps someone apart from the outside.
   - _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._
5. Any rounded, hollow object that resembles a sphere.
   - Simple: Any round, hollow thing shaped like a ball.
   - _A glass bubble enclosed the delicate clock mechanism._
   - _The diver's helmet was a clear bubble of reinforced plastic._
8. 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.
   - Simple: The point in a competition that separates those who go through or win money from those who are out.
   - _The college was squarely on the bubble when the selection committee met._
   - _A late loss dropped them below the bubble and out of contention._
9. A controlled, isolated group of people, and sometimes the places they use, kept apart from everyone else to limit the spread of infection.
   - Simple: A group of people kept apart from everyone else so they do not catch or spread an illness.
   - _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._
13. Short for travel bubble: an agreement between countries or regions letting people travel between them without quarantine, as during the COVID-19 pandemic. — Ellipsis of travel bubble.
   - Simple: Short for travel bubble: a deal letting people travel between certain places without quarantine, as during COVID-19.
   - _Officials announced that the bubble would reopen once case numbers fell._
   - _Travelers welcomed the bubble linking the neighboring island nations._

## Verb

2. To produce bubbles, or to rise upward in bubbles, as foods do when cooking or liquids do when boiling.
   - Simple: To make bubbles or rise up in bubbles, the way water does when it boils.
   - _The thick stew started to bubble gently over low heat._
   - _Hot springs bubble where gases escape from underground._
6. 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.
   - Simple: Of a feeling, to grow strongly inside you as if it is about to come out.
   - _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._
7. To rise gradually through a medium or system, in the way that bubbles ascend through liquid.
   - Simple: To slowly rise up through something, the way bubbles rise in water.
   - _Promising recruits slowly bubble up through the organization's lower tiers._
   - _Rumors bubbled through the office before any official announcement._
12. To mark a response on a form by filling in a circular area.
   - Simple: To fill in a small circle on a form to mark your answer.
   - _Students bubble their choices on the scannable answer sheet._
   - _He carefully bubbled in each response before the timer ran out._
10. To express something in a lively, enthusiastic, and cheerful manner.
   - Simple: To say something in a cheerful and lively way.
   - _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._
11. To push or form something into a rounded, protruding shape, or to cover a surface with bubbles.
   - Simple: To push something out into a round 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._
14. To join with another household to form a single exclusive group permitted close contact, as during pandemic restrictions.
   - Simple: To form one close group with another household so you can meet safely.
   - _Many single people bubbled with a neighbor to avoid spending the lockdown alone._
   - _They chose to bubble with the family next door for the winter._
15. To inform on someone, reporting their criminal activity to the authorities. *(slang, UK)*
   - Simple: To secretly tell the police what someone has done wrong.
   - _She threatened to bubble the whole crew if they cut her out._
   - _One of the lookouts bubbled them to the local police._
16. To cry or weep, especially in a tearful, sobbing way. *(dialectal, Northern England, Scotland)*
   - Simple: To cry or weep, usually with sobbing.
   - _He tried not to bubble at the funeral, but the tears came anyway._
   - _The children bubbled loudly when their grandmother left._

## Other meanings

- (verb) To pat a baby on the back in order to bring up swallowed air as a belch.
- (noun) Something lacking firmness or substance; a cheat, fraud, or empty venture that collapses under scrutiny.
- (verb) To apply a filter bubble to content, narrowing what a person sees to material matching their existing preferences.
- (noun) Any of the small magnetized regions that together make up bubble memory, an early form of data storage.
- (noun) A specialized glass pipe with a sphere-shaped chamber at one end, used to vaporize and inhale drugs.
- (noun) On a film or television set, the bulb or lamp itself: the part of a lighting unit that actually produces the light.
- (noun) An officer's enclosed station in a prison dormitory, positioned to give views on every side of the unit.
- (noun) A small, hollow floating bead or globe, formerly used to gauge the alcoholic strength of spirits.
- (noun) A gullible person who has been tricked or taken in by a scheme.
- (noun) In British rhyming slang from "bubble bath," a laugh, often in "having a bubble," meaning joking or taking liberties.
- (noun) In British rhyming slang from "bubble and squeak," a person from Greece or of Greek descent.
- (verb) To trick someone into believing something false, or to swindle them.

## Origin

Partly imitative in origin and influenced by 'burble', it resembles Middle Dutch 'bobbe', Dutch 'bubbel', Low German 'bubbel', Danish 'boble', and Swedish 'bubbla'. Financial uses are recorded by 1700. The word became closely associated with South Sea speculation around 1720, drawing on the image of an inflated, fragile bubble.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/bubble (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).