puff up

present singular third person puffs up · participle present puffing up · participle past puffed up · past puffed up

1. transitiveTo inflate with air.

   We puffed up the balloons.

2. intransitivetransitiveTo fluff up, such as an animal raising its fur or feathers to appear larger or conserve body heat.

   The angry cat hissed and puffed up its fur.

   1 more example

   Small birds puff up while sleeping to keep warm.

3. intransitiveTo swell due to injury or illness.

   My hand puffed up where the cat had scratched me.

4. figurativelyintransitiveTo become proud. (Often written as puffed up with pride.)

   Sore against our will did we of Witchland join with the Demons in that war, foreseeing (as hath been bloodily approved) that the issue must be but the puffing up of the Demons, who desire no other thing than to be lords and tyrants of all the world.

   1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 37

5. To trump up.

   On the 17th of November I was put in the hole because the administration accused me and my lover of fighting. We were sort of fighting but not to the extent that they made it appear. (We later found out through several officers that they wanted to transfer my lover, so they puffed up the charges.)

   1988 February 21, Jery Ragland, “A Hell Of An Appeal”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 31, page 5