bubblenoun
uk/ˈbʌb.əl/us/ˈbʌb.əl/bubble noun (AIR BALL)
C1 [ C ] a ball of gas that appears in a liquid, or a ball formed of air surrounded by liquid that floats in the air:
As water begins to boil, bubbles rise to the surface.
I love champagne - I think it's the bubbles that make it so good.
More examples
- soap bubbles
- Emily was blowing bubbles in the garden.
- The bubbles from the champagne went up my nose and made me sneeze.
- The kids like bubbles in their bath.
- She watched as, one by one, the bubbles popped.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Spherical, circular and annular objects
- ball
- blob
- bobble
- bowling ball
- cylinder
- egg
- game ball
- glob
- globe
- globule
- hoop
- orb
- pellet
- pommel
- ring
- roll
- sphere
- spool
- spring
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bubble noun (GOOD PERIOD)
[ C usually singular ] a temporary period of very successful economic performance in a particular country or sector, often followed by sudden failure:
Japan's economic bubble
the housing bubble
He made millions before the dotcom bubble burst.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Economics
- autarchy
- broad money
- Chancellor of the Exchequer
- consumer price index
- credit crunch
- depressed
- downturn
- expenditure
- GDP per capita
- GNI
- hyperinflation
- market forces
- mixed economy
- pecuniary
- protectionism
- retail price index
- spending
- stall
- trade figures
- upturn
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bubble noun (PROTECTED LIFE)
[ C ] a situation in which you only experience things that you expect or find easy to deal with, for example opinions you agree with, or people who are similar to you:
The candidate liked to talk to ordinary people to get a fix on what was happening outside his bubble.
On social media we all tend to live in our bubbles, where everyone feels the same way we do.
Idiom(s)
burst someone's bubble
on the bubble
bubbleverb [ I ]
uk/ˈbʌb.əl/us/ˈbʌb.əl/C2 to produce bubbles:
We could hear the soup bubbling away (= bubbling strongly) in the pot.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Preparing food using heat
- bake
- barbecue
- baste
- batch-bake
- boil sth up
- boiled
- curry
- flambé
- flash-fry
- fried
- frizzled
- fry
- lightly
- microwave
- precook
- preheat
- render sth down
- rendering
- sauté
- shallow-fry
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Phrasal verb(s)
bubble over
bubble up