Partly imitative, also influenced by burble. Compare Middle Dutch bobbe > Dutch bubbel, Low German bubbel, Danish boble, Swedish bubbla. The word was first used in its economic sense in association with the collapse of the South Sea Company in 1720, based on the metaphor of an inflated soap bubble bursting.

• IPA: /ˈbʌb.əl/
• (Northern England, Ireland) IPA: /ˈbʊb.əl/

bubble (plural bubbles)

1. A spherically contained volume of air or other gas, especially one made from soapy liquid.

   Synonyms: bull

   Antonyms: antibubble

2. A small spherical cavity in a solid material.

   bubbles in window glass, or in a lens

3. (by extension) Anything resembling a hollow sphere.
4. (figurative) Anything lacking firmness or solidity; a cheat or fraud; an empty project.
   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene vii]:

     Then a soldier […] / Seeking the bubble reputation / Even in the cannon's mouth

5. (economics) A 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

6. (figurative) The emotional or physical atmosphere in which a subject is immersed.

   Synonyms: circumstances, ambience

   Hyponym: filter bubble

7. An officer's station in a prison dormitory, affording views on all sides.
   • 1998, District of Columbia Appropriations for 1998: Hearings:

     Later that day, the unit was staffed with only one officer, who was required to stay in the bubble.

8. (obsolete) Someone who has been ‘bubbled’ or fooled; a dupe.
   • 1709, Matthew Prior, Cupid and Ganymede:

     Gany's a cheat, and I'm a bubble.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1979, page 15:

     For no woman, sure, will plead the passion of love for an excuse. This would be to own herself the mere tool and bubble of the man.

9. A small, hollow, floating bead or globe, formerly used for testing the strength of spirits.
10. The globule of air in the chamber of a spirit level.
11. (Cockney rhyming slang) A laugh.

    Synonyms: giraffe, bubble bath

    Are you having a bubble?!

12. (Cockney rhyming slang) A Greek.

    Synonyms: bubble and squeak

13. (computing, historical) Any of the small magnetized areas that make up bubble memory.
14. (poker) In a poker tournament, the point before which eliminated players receive no prize money and after which they do; the situation where all remaining players are guaranteed prize money (in this case, the players are said to have made the bubble); the situation where all remaining players will be guaranteed prize money after some small number of players are eliminated (in this case, the players are said to be on the bubble).

    Many players tend to play timidly (not play many hands) around the bubble, to keep their chips and last longer in the game.

15. (sports) The cutoff point between qualifying, advancing or being invited to a tournament, or having one's competition end.

    bubble watch

16. (chiefly, COVID-19 pandemic) A quarantine environment containing multiple people and/or facilities isolated from the rest of society.
17. The people who are in this quarantine.
18. Short for travel bubble.
19. (television, slang) A bulb or lamp; the part of a lighting assembly that actually produces the light.
    • 2013, Gerald Millerson, Lighting for TV and Film, page 296:

      A bare lamp (bulb, globe, 'bubble') radiates light in all directions.

20. (drug paraphernalia) A specialized glass pipe having a sphere-shaped apparatus at one end.

• French: bulle
• German: Blase
• Italian: bolla
• Portuguese: bolha, borbulha
• Russian: пузы́рь
• Spanish: burbuja, pompa (soap bubble), campanilla

• French: trou
• German: Blase
• Portuguese: bolha
• Russian: пузы́рь

• German: Blase
• Portuguese: bolha
• Russian: пузы́рь

• French: vent

• French: bulle
• German: Blase
• Italian: bolla
• Portuguese: bolha
• Russian: пузы́рь
• Spanish: burbuja

• French: ambiance

bubble (bubbles, present participle bubbling; simple past and past participle bubbled)

1. (intransitive) To produce bubbles, to rise up in bubbles (such as in foods cooking or liquids boiling).

   The laminate is bubbling.

2. (intransitive, figurative) To churn or foment, as if wishing to rise to the surface.

   Rage bubbled inside him.

3. (intransitive, figurative) To rise through a medium or system, similar to the way that bubbles rise in liquid.
4. (transitive, archaic) To cheat, delude.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 443:

     No, no, friend, I shall never be bubbled out of my religion in hopes only of keeping my place under another government […]

5. (intransitive, Scotland and Northern England) To cry, weep.
6. (transitive) To pat a baby on the back so as to cause it to belch.
   • 1942, McCall’s, volume 69, page 94:

     Groggily her mind went back through the long hours to 10 P.M. She had fed Junior, bubbled him, diped him—according to plan.

7. (transitive) To cause to feel as if bubbling or churning.
   • 1922, Conal O’Riordan, In London: The Story of Adam and Marriage, page 164:

     It seemed to Adam that he felt the blood in his toes creeping up his legs and body until it reached his brain where, finding it could go no farther, it bubbled him into dumbness: it added to his confusion to know that he looked as if some such accident had befallen his circulation.

   • 2011, Tim O’Brien, Northern Lights, page 201:

     The frothing sensation bubbled him all over, a boiling without heat or any sound or light.

8. (transitive) To express in a bubbly or lively manner.
9. (transitive) To form into a protruding round shape.
   • 1929, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 201, page 50:

     She bubbled her lips at Junior and wrinkled her eyes.

10. (transitive) To cover with bubbles.
11. (transitive) To bubble in; to mark a response on a form by filling in a circular area (‘bubble’).
    • 2019, Crash Course for the ACT, 6th Edition: Your Last-Minute Guide to Scoring High, page 15:

      You don’t want to go back and forth between the test booklet and your answer sheet to bubble your answers.

12. (computing) To apply a filter bubble, as to search results.
13. (intransitive) To join together in a support bubble
14. (transitive, UK, slang) To grass (report criminal activity to the authorities).

• French: bouillonner
• German: blubbern
• Portuguese: borbulhar
• Spanish: burbujear