deflate, v.
(dɪˈfleɪt)
[f. L. dēflāt-, ppl. stem of dēflāre, to blow away, f. de- I. 2 + flāre to blow; but in mod. use the prefix is taken as de- I. 1, down, or de- II. 1.]
1. a. trans. To release the air from (anything inflated).
| 1891 Strand Mag. II. 498/1 Spencer proceeds to deflate the balloon. 1892 Cycl. Tour. Club Gaz. Aug. 229 In case of repairs the tyre is deflated. |
b. intr. for pass. Of an inflated object: to become emptied of the inflating gas; to ‘go down’.
| 1902 Daily Chron. 2 Sept. 4/5 Mr. Spencer turning aside from the deflating balloon. 1925 Glasgow Herald 18 Apr. 9 When the bag deflated it formed a new bulkhead. 1971 Country Life 14 Jan. 59/3 The turkey cock deflated and rushed away, squawking for dear life. |
2. a. intr. To ‘climb down’; to lose spirit, confidence, etc.
| 1912 D. H. Lawrence Let. 5 Apr. (1962) I. 107 I'll write to Harrison. He seems inclined to deflate. On Tuesday he wrote me a cocky letter, yesterday, a sweet and friendly one. 1933 T. E. Lawrence Lett. (1938) 772 ‘Mr. Garnett’ said the village postman importantly ‘is gone to Spain.’ ‘Mr. Garnett is unfortunate’ I replied..and the postman deflated. 1960 L. Wright Clean & Decent 264 We may or may not deflate when a statistician tells us that of our neighbours on a London bus today, one in five never takes a bath. |
b. trans. To reduce the size or importance of (a thing). Of a person's reputation, character, etc.: to depreciate, to ‘debunk’.
| 1920 Glasgow Herald 17 Mar. 11, I rather wish not to inflate the currency of optimism, but I want to deflate the note of pessimism which is sometimes present. 1933 H. G. Wells Bulpington iii. 113 Comfort, bathrooms, punctuality, duty, were all jumbled and deflated together under the blight of that word [bourgeois]. 1934 ― Exper. in Autobiogr. I. v. 247 Strong as is my disposition to deflate the reputation of Marx I have to admit [etc.]. Ibid. II. ix. 763 The belief in the possible world leadership of England had been deflated. 1940 J. Buchan Memory Hold-the-Door viii. 185 They were sansculottes who sought to deflate majestic reputations. 1940 Manch. Guardian Weekly 5 Jan. 2 The war's lack of intensity has deflated what military fervour there ever was. 1958 Essays & Studies XI. iv. 53 Lytton Strachey uses the tone of Gibbon in order to deflate the Victorians. |
3. a. trans. To reduce the inflation of (a currency). Also absol., to pursue a policy of deflation. b. intr. for pass. To be reduced by deflation.
| 1919 R. G. Hawtrey Currency & Credit 352 Every country will seek to keep pace with its neighbours. If one does not deflate its currency as quickly as the others the exchanges will turn against it. 1922 Glasgow Herald 7 Aug. 8 All of these costs..would require to deflate to pre-war standard to enable the sixpenny loaf to reappear. 1923 R. M{supc}Kenna in Daily Mail 27 Jan. 3 If at this stage we made no further effort to deflate, trade would soon recover. 1926 Westm. Gaz. 30 July, To ‘deflate’ the franc from 240 or 200..to a level of only 25 to the {pstlg} is beyond the realms of practicability. 1963 Ann. Reg. 1962 15 Treasury belief that Britain could afford to deflate its way out of its balance of payments difficulties. |
Hence deˈflated, deˈflating ppl. adjs.
| 1894 Sat. Rev. 8 Dec. 618/1 There are narrow edges to the rims on which a deflated tyre would rest. 1908 H. G. Wells War in Air iv. 133 He left him in an extremely deflated condition, with all his little story told. 1931 ― Work, Wealth & Happiness (1932) xii. 616 Operations with the deflated armament firms, metallurgical industries and petroleum. 1933 Mind XLII. 266 The effect is to put Taine in his place (in the ‘deflating’ sense of these words). 1960 N. Coward Pomp & Circumstance iv. 28 There's nothing more deflating than telling someone some exciting news and discovering that they already know it. |