bubble

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A thin ball of liquid filled with air or gas

   The children blew soap bubbles in the garden.

2. 2
   verb

   To form or produce bubbles

   The soup bubbled gently on the stove.

3. 3
   verb

   To flow with a soft gurgling sound

   A small stream bubbled through the forest.

4. 4
   noun

   An idea or situation that seems hopeful but is unrealistic and likely to fail

   He hated to burst her bubble, but the plan would never work.

Partly imitative, also influenced by burble. Compare Middle Dutch bobbe (“bubble”) > Dutch bubbel (“bubble”), Low German bubbel (“bubble”), Danish boble (“bubble”), Swedish bubbla (“bubble”). 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.

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