bloat / blōt/ • v. [tr.] cause to swell with fluid or gas: the fungus has bloated his fingers. ∎  [intr.] become swollen with fluid or gas: [as n.] (bloating) she suffered from abdominal bloating. • n. a disease of livestock characterized by an accumulation of gas in the stomach.bloat² • v. [tr.] cure (a herring) by salting and smoking it lightly.

bloat †bloat herring, herring smoked and halfdried. XVI.
Hence †bloated in the same sense XVII; whence bloater XIX; see -ED1 -ER1. Of uncert. orig. Identical in form are bloat adj. and vb. and bloated ppl. adj., which are used of a puffed, swollen, or inflated condition, but it is doubtful whether the two groups have the same ult. orig.

Bloat

of hippopotami—Lipton, 1970.