bubble

2 syllables

Quick answer

As a noun, bubble means a spherically contained volume of air or other gas, especially one made from soapy liquid. As a verb, it means produce bubbles, to rise up in bubbles (such as in foods cooking or liquids boiling).

Meanings of bubble

37 meanings

noun

A spherically contained volume of air or other gas, especially one made from soapy liquid.
A small spherical cavity in a solid material.
“bubbles in window glass, or in a lens”
Anything resembling a hollow sphere.
figurativeAnything lacking firmness or solidity; a cheat or fraud; an empty project.
economicsA period of intense speculation in a market, causing prices to rise quickly to irrational levels as the metaphorical bubble expands, and then fall even more quickly as the bubble bursts.
“real estate bubble”
“dot-com bubble”
figurativeThe emotional and/or physical atmosphere in which the subject is immersed.
An officer's station in a prison dormitory, affording views on all sides.
A small, hollow, floating bead or globe, formerly used for testing the strength of spirits.
The globule of air in the chamber of a spirit level.
cockney rhyming slangA laugh.
“Are you having a bubble?!”
cockney rhyming slangA Greek.
pokerThe point in a poker tournament when the last player without a prize loses all their chips and leaves the game, leaving only players that are going to win prizes. (e.g., if the last remaining 9 players win prizes, then the point when the 10th player leaves the tournament)
“Many players tend to play timidly (not play many hands) around the bubble, to keep their chips and last longer in the game.”
A group of people who are in quarantine together.
Short for travel bubble.

Older and rare meanings (2)

obsoleteSomeone who has been ‘bubbled’ or fooled; a dupe.
computinghistoricalAny of the small magnetized areas that make up bubble memory.

verb

To produce bubbles, to rise up in bubbles (such as in foods cooking or liquids boiling).
“The laminate is bubbling.”
figurativeTo churn or foment, as if wishing to rise to the surface.
“Rage bubbled inside him.”
figurativeTo rise through a medium or system, similar to the way that bubbles rise in liquid.
ScotlandNorthern EnglandTo cry, weep.
To pat a baby on the back so as to cause it to belch.
To cause to feel as if bubbling or churning.
To express in a bubbly or lively manner.
To form into a protruding round shape.
To cover with bubbles.
To bubble in; to mark a response on a form by filling in a circular area (‘bubble’).
computingTo apply a filter bubble, as to search results.
“Please don't bubble me; just give me the stories I need to hear.”
To join together in a support bubble
Flow in an irregular current with a bubbling noise
“babbling brooks”
Similar: ripple, babble, guggle, burble, gurgle
Cause to form bubbles
“bubble gas through a liquid”