verb. (American).—To brag; TO GAS (q.v.). Also colloquial: e.g., BALLOONACY (cf. lunacy) = a mania for ballooning; BALLOONATIC (cf. lunatic) = balloon-mad; BALLOONING, subs. (stock exchange) = inflating prices by fictitious means, and as adj. = HIGHFALUTIN’ (q.v.).
d. 1826. JEFFERSON, Correspondence, I. 323. BALLOONING indeed goes on.
1864. Daily Telegraph, 19 Feb. We live in an age of BALLOONACY. Ibid. (1865), 22 Nov., 5. 3. That Nadar, the BALLOONATIC, has sold his balloon.
1878. T. SINCLAIR, The Mount, 23. Gas-brained BALLOONING wandering men.
1882. Western Daily Press, 27 March, 3, 1. A sharp epidemic of BALLOONACY.
1882. Moonshine, V. 163. Another BALLOONATIC attempt to cross the Channel.
