|Origin:||, past participle of inflare, from flare 'to blow'|
1 [intransitive and transitive]
to fill something with air or gas so it becomes larger, or to become filled with air or gas:
It took us half an hour to inflate the dinghy.
Her life jacket failed to inflate.
to make something seem more important or impressive than it really is:
The success further inflated his self-confidence.
be grossly/vastly/hugely inflated
The numbers of people involved have been grossly inflated by the media.
3 [intransitive and transitive] technicalBPE
to increase in price or make something increase in price:
Hotels often inflate prices at particular times of the year.
Costs were inflating.