bubble
n. countablen. a thin ball of liquid with air inside, or a situation where prices for something rise too high and then suddenly fall. You can also use it to describe a small group of people who stay away from others.
n. a thin, spherical film of liquid enclosing air or gas; also used metaphorically to describe an economic cycle characterized by rapid escalation of asset values followed by a contraction.
The children are blowing bubbles in the garden.
Investors grew worried that the housing market was in a bubble that would eventually burst and cause a recession.
While the tech bubble of the late nineties saw unprecedented market speculation, it also laid the physical infrastructure for the modern internet through massive investment in fiber-optic cables.
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.
Often used with the verbs 'burst' or 'pop' in both literal and figurative contexts.