Also 5 boble, bobel, 6 bubbul, 7 buble. [orig. f. the verb: see also the earlier BURBLE sb. found c. 1350. Parallel sbs. in other Teutonic langs. are Sw. bubbla, Da. boble, Du. bobbel, Ger. dial. bobbel, bubbel. In their development the vb. and sb. appear to have influenced each other: see sense 5.]
1. A thin globular (or hemispherical) vesicle of water or other liquid, filled with air or gas; applied alike to those produced by the agitation of a quantity of the liquid, or the uprising of gas to the surface, and to those artificially made by blowing through a tube; often = soap-bubble. Also a quantity of air or gas occluded within a liquid; spec., the portion of air left in the spirit-level. Sometimes applied to cavities produced by occluded air in solid substances that have cooled from fusion. To blow bubbles: to produce bubbles by blowing through a tube; often fig. to devise baseless theories, or to amuse oneself in a childish manner.
1481. Caxton, Myrr., II. xxi. 113. The water of those wellis sprynge vp with grete bobles.
1528. Paynell, Salerne Regim., H b. Hit [wyne] hath great bubbuls and spume.
1605. Shaks., Macb., I. iii. 722. The Earth hath bubbles, as the Water ha’s.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 24. Bubbles, are in the form of an Hemisphere; Air within, and a little Skin of Water without.
a. 1677. Hale, True Relig., II. (1684), 32. Boys … blow Bubbles out of a Wall-nut-shell.
1728. Young, Love Fame, II. (1757), 99. What are men … But bubbles on the rapid stream of time?
1783. Cowper, Lett., 29 Sept. One generation blows bubbles, and the next breaks them.
1831. Lardner, Hydrostatics, iv. 75. If the bubble stand still in the middle, it proves the instrument [spirit level] to be correct.
1879. G. Prescott, Sp. Telephone, Introd. 1. A bubble of hydrogen rose to the surface, as the bubble from champagne does in the wine cup.
† 2. transf. a. A hollow globe of thin glass, produced by blowing; spec. one of the hollow beads of glass formerly used for testing the strength of spirits (see BEAD 7). b. Hist. Used to translate L. bulla a round ornament of gold or leather worn by the children of Roman freemen. Obs.
1647. R. Stapylton, Juvenal, v. 194. What poore man … had Hetrurian bubbles when he was a lad. Ibid., Comm. 154. Æmilius Lepidus … had a statue in his pretexted purple and golden bulla’s (or bubbles) set up in the capitol.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys.-Mech., II. 40. Glass bubles, such as are wont to be blown at the flame of a lamp. Ibid., XX. (1682), 71. Then was taken a great Glass bubble, with a long neck.
1667. Pepys, Diary (1877), V. 419. He … did give me a glass bubble, to try the strength of liquors with.
3. fig. Anything fragile, unsubstantial, empty or worthless; a deceptive show. From 17th c. onwards often applied to delusive commercial or financial schemes, as the Mississippi Bubble, the South Sea Bubble.
1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, II. vi. 198. To see this butterfly, This windy bubble taske my balladry.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. vii. 152. Seeking the bubble Reputation Euen in the Canons mouth.
a. 1626. Bacon, Ps., in Farr’s S. P. (1848), 301. Mortality: This bubble light, this vapour of our breath.
c. 1665. in Roxb. Ballads (1886), VI. 254. Why should a Woman dote on such a Bubble?
1721. Swift, S. Sea Proj. Wks., 1755, III. II. 138. The nation … will find … South-sea at best a mighty bubble.
1745. De Foe, Eng. Tradesm. (1841), II. xliv. 157. In the good old days of trade, there were no bubbles, no stock-jobbing.
1783. Cowper, Task, III. 175. Eternity for bubbles proves at last A senseless bargain.
1858. Sat. Rev., 27 Nov., 524/1. We are asked … to back the luck of that gigantic bubble, the French Empire.
b. attrib. or adj.: Unsubstantial, fragile, delusive; often with reference to fraudulent commercial undertakings, as in bubble company, scheme.
1635. Quarles, Embl., I. iv. (1718), 19. What’s lighter than the mind? A thought. Than thought? This bubble world.
1726. Amherst, Terræ Filius, xii. 59. Several bubble-schools and academies sprung up.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), III. 119. He … was concerned in a bubble Lottery.
1798. Edgeworth, Pract. Educ. (1801), II. 373. This wager would have been a bubble bet if it had been brought before the Jockey-club.
a. 1845. Hood, Black Job, xvii. No … Bubble Company could hope to thrive.
4. The process of bubbling; the sound made by bubbling; a state of agitation. Naut. phrase: A bubble of a sea: cf. BOBBLE.
1839. Beale, in Sat. Mag., 18 May, 192/1. An awkward ‘bubble’ of a sea … began to make.
1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xxiv. There was a bubble of a sea.
1874. Mrs. Whitney, We Girls, xix. 187. There was nothing but a low, comfortable bubble in the chimney-corner to tell of … dinner.
† 5. One who may be or is ‘bubbled’ (sense 5 of the verb); a dupe, a gull. Obs.
1668. Sedley, Mulb. Gard., IV. Wks. 1722, II. 56. Are any of these Gentlemen good Bubbles, Mr. Wildish?
1702. De Foe, Reform. Manners, I. 315. The wondring Bubbles stand amaz’d to see Their Money Mountebank’d to Mercury.
1735–8. Bolingbroke, On Parties, 144. They were not such Bubbles as to alter, without mending, the Government.
a. 1774. Goldsm., trans. Scarron’s Comic Rom. (1775), I. 21. He generally dined and supped in taverns at the expence of every fool and bubble he met with.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., I. Wks. 1834, II. 151. A board, beneath a tiled retreat Allures the bubble, and maintains the cheat.
6. Comb. (see also 3 b), as bubble-blower, -blowing ppl. adj. and vbl. sb., -filled adj.; † bubble-glass, glass as thin as a bubble (see also 2); bubble-man (see quot.); bubble-shell, a sort of mollusk.
1882. Macm. Mag., XLVI. 122. The iron-impregnated, *bubble-filled fountains of Schwalbach.
1591. Spenser, Ruines of Time, 50. Why then dooth flesh, a *bubble-glas of breath, Hunt after honour?
1862. Mayhew, Crim. Prisons, 46. Cheats, subdivisible into … *bubble-men, who institute annuity offices and assurance companies.
1854. Woodward, Mollusca (1856), 14. The *bubble-shell (phyline), itself predacious, is eaten both by star-fish and sea-anemone.
