bubble - Dictionary definition and pronunciation - Yahoo! Education
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bub·ble  audio  (bbl) KEY 

NOUN:
  1. A thin, usually spherical or hemispherical film of liquid filled with air or gas: a soap bubble.
  2. A globular body of air or gas formed within a liquid: air bubbles rising to the surface.
  3. A pocket formed in a solid by air or gas that is trapped, as during cooling or hardening.
    1. The act or process of forming bubbles.
    2. A sound made by or as if by the forming and bursting of bubbles.
  4. Something insubstantial, groundless, or ephemeral, especially:
    1. A fantastic or impracticable idea or belief; an illusion: didn't want to burst the new volunteers' bubble.
    2. A speculative scheme that comes to nothing: lost money in the real estate bubble.
  5. Something light or effervescent: "Maconthough terribly distressedhad to fight down a bubble of laughter" (Anne Tyler).
  6. A usually transparent glass or plastic dome.
  7. A protective, often isolating envelope or cover: "The Secret Service will talk of tightening protection, but no President wants to live in a bubble" (Anthony Lewis).
VERB:
bub·bled, bub·bling, bub·bles
VERB:
intr.
  1. To form or give off bubbles.
  2. To move or flow with a gurgling sound: a brook bubbling along its course.
  3. To rise to or as if to the surface; emerge: "Since then, the revolution has bubbled up again in many forms" (Jonathan Schell).
  4. To display irrepressible activity or emotion: bubbling over with excitement.
VERB:
tr.
To cause to form bubbles.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Middle English bubelen, to bubble


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