1668 C. Sedley Mulberry-garden iv, in Wks. (1722) II. 56 Are any of these Gentlemen good Bubbles, Mr. Wildish?

1702 D. Defoe Reformation of Manners i. 315 The wondring Bubbles stand amaz'd to see Their Money Mountebank'd to Mercury.

1735 Visct. Bolingbroke Diss. upon Parties (ed. 2) 144 They were not such Bubbles as to alter, without mending the Government.

a1774 O. Goldsmith tr. P. Scarron Comic Romance (1775) I. iv. 21 He generally dined and supped in taverns at the expence of every fool and bubble he met with.

1807 G. Crabbe Parish Reg. i, in Poems 43 A board, beneath a til'd retreat, Allures the bubble and maintains the cheat.

1842 Cleave's Penny Gaz. 27 Aug. Wretched dupe! infatuated bubble!

1839 T. Beale in Sat. Mag. 18 May 192/1 An awkward ‘bubble’ of a sea..began to make.

1840 F. Marryat Poor Jack xxiv. 172 There was a bubble of a sea.

1870 A. D. T. Whitney We Girls ix. 149 There was nothing but a low, comfortable bubble in the chimney-corner to tell of..dinner.

1901 T. Mair in A. I. McConnochie Bk. of Ellon 148 Turning to the company, the bubble of conversation at once ceased as she addressed them.

1978 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 18 Jan. Combine the soup with the milk and water and slowly bring to a bubble.

2004 R. Craig Great Day Trips to Connecticut's Crit. Habitats xx. 228 The characteristic fall occurrence of hawk ‘kettles’, a swirling bubble of birds, is a consequence of birds using thermals.

1915 Cartoons Mag. June 913/2 From the mouth of Greeley floated away an oblong soap-bubble, containing the words: ‘We can prove that you have split rails’.

1946 A. E. W. Mason House on Lordship Lane xii. 108 A big cartoon..represented a crowded House of Commons,..the Speaker on his feet with a shocked expression and these words enclosed, as it were, in a bubble issuing from his lips: ‘Order! Order!’

1988 R. Powers Prisoner's Dilemma (1996) x. 176 With a few deft strokes, he blows a talk bubble above Mickey's head.

1997 Financial Times 24 Apr. 2 One cartoon..showed the government in naval uniform..with a bubble saying: ‘Oh dear we have got the manoeuvre wrong!’

2011 H. Durand No Room for Dessert 101 She'd added a little cartoon bubble that said, ‘Beep-Beepy-Beep-Beep!’

1900 C. L. Cullen in Sun (N.Y.) 7 Oct. iii. 6/5 We cut a quart into equal parts and oiled up on that... We got into the roller again and..were jogged to a truly rural wetworks... Here we had more bubbles.]

?1920 20th Engineers: France 1917–1918–1920 (U.S. Army Corp Engineers 20th regiment) article Paul Bunyan did his Bit Paul descended to the cellar..and in the course of an hour returned, singing at the top of his great voice, ‘I'm Forever Drinking Bubbles’. The champagne had given the crafty giant an idea.

a1933 R. W. Chambers Young Man's Girl (1934) xxx. 327 I had it all figured out that it would be lousy with bohemian boys and girls carousing, singing, and drinking bubble!

1989 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) (Nexis) 6 Dec. The 1986 pinot chardonnay bubbles..will cost about $22 in the bottleshop,..close to the lower-priced French champagnes.

2017 K. A. Linde Wright Boss xxi. ‘We need ice cream and bubbles to celebrate.’ ‘Oh, champs, yes!’ I agreed.

1962 R. Cook Crust on its Uppers i. 20 All the best Anglo-Saxon grafters come from mine, and the Bubbles and the Indians from the other [school].

1985 L. Griffiths Arthur Daley's Guide to doing it Right 52 That doesn't mean disrespect—a bubble is just a simple term of description for a Greek.

2002 Guardian 23 Feb. 16 They called him Big Bubble and, unaware of Cockney rhyming slang (bubble and squeak = Greek), I pictured him as something magically iridescent, blown from a clay pipe.

1967 A. H. Bobeck in Bell Syst. Techn. Jrnl. 46 1915 Then as the bias field is applied large numbers of ‘bubbles’ appear such as in Fig. 18. Our next problem is to look at the ways in which these ‘bubbles’ can be manipulated to do logic and storage.

1982 W. H. Dennis Electronic Components & Syst. x. 192 Production of a bubble device begins with a substrate..upon which an epitaxial film is grown.

1999 Forbes 8 Mar. 132/4 Bubble memory: floating magnetized bubbles hyped in early 1970s as replacement for DRAMs and hard disks.

2017 B. Dieny et al. Introd. Magn. Random-access Memory Pref. p. xiv. The presence or absence of a bubble—a logic ‘1’ or ‘0’—was detected with magnetoresistive sensors.

1635 F. Quarles Emblemes i. iv. Epigr. 19 What's lighter than the mind? A thought: Than Thought? This bubble-world.

1721 N. Amhurst Terræ-filius 22–25 Feb. Several Bubble-Schools and Academies sprung up.

1763 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting III. i. 66 He..was concerned in a bubble Lottery.

1798 M. Edgeworth & R. L. Edgeworth Pract. Educ. II. xxiii. 682 This wager would have been a bubble bet if it had been brought before the Jockey-club.

1839 N.Z. Gaz. 21 Aug. 6/2 He goes about describing it as a bubble scheme, and Poyais project for cheating the public.

1857 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. London 20 278 The wild speculation in bubble projects, the reckless living, and the improvident habits..were all circumstances which told their tale upon the fortunes of Sir R. Walpole's landed friends.

1949 Centralia (Illinois) Evening Sentinel 2 Apr. English bankers called the project a ‘bubble scheme’.

2013 N.Y. Mag. 11 Feb. 73 The twenty new and veteran series, so-called bubble shows, whose ratings haven't warranted cancellation but still aren't good enough to make renewal inevitable.

1738 London Evening Post 22–24 Aug. 1/3 There has been as many, if not more People there than in the famous Bubble Year 1720.

1833 Courier 2 Oct. 4/1 They would admire..the successful product of fraud... This is not an imaginary illustration—the bubble era afforded many instances.

1884 Cent. Mag. Jan. 440/2 Among other visionary schemes one was broached in the bubble period of 1720 to settle a whole county in Virginia with felons who should be forced to cultivate hemp.

1935 North Amer. Rev. Mar. 224/2 Even in 1929, foremost bubble year of American prosperity,..the nation actually was enduring an under-supply and under-consumption of many great food products.

1992 Economist 6 June 114/1 After spending the bubble years obsessively chasing asset growth, Japanese banks are at last learning to go for profits instead.

2012 S. Spiegel in P. Bolton & F. Samama Sovereign Wealth Funds & Long-term Investing iii. 88 The first question is why these investors would choose to buy illiquid assets during bubble periods.

1910 Des Moines (Iowa) News 9 Sept. 6/2 The new features shown in the gown are the seamless waist..and the suggested bubble skirt.

1957 Manch. Guardian 29 Jan. 5/5 The ‘bubble silhouette’... This means barrel-shaped skirts and pannier effects slimming to near hobble below the knee and bubble-backed jackets to the hips.

1992 N.Y. Times 24 Mar. a19/6 The collection offered..bubble dresses made of sheer, glittery ‘astral lace’.

2012 T. Gunn Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible vi. 105 A trend that comes and goes: the bubble skirt.

1827 Louisiana Advertiser 9 Mar. Thousands of honest and respectable people..were seduced by that glozing serpent the bubble maker.

1841 Standard 22 Mar. The bubble-blower..has sent forth the monstrous inflation that the labours of the said priesthood ‘have produced the soberest men and the chastest women in the world.’

1865 R. D. Blackmore in Macmillan's Mag. May 488/1 And now he was to smoke there—he, a mere bubble-blowing boy, to smoke in the middle of deepest books, to fumigate a manuscript containing a lifeful of learning.

1972 Times 26 June 8/5 Much authentic [A. J. P.] Taylor—pinpricking, bubble-bursting.

2016 Bradford (Ont.) Times (Nexis) 14 July a 14 The Ontario Early Years Centre, Bradford Satellite held its annual Teddy Bears' Picnic, June 10—with face-painting and crafts indoors, and outdoor activities that included bubble-blowing and parachute games.

1943 Yank 19 Mar. 26/1 Bubble Butt Nelson..got disgusted with the way things were going on.

1989 D. B. Feinberg Eighty-Sixed (1990) iv. 49 Frank had a perfect bubble-butt and massive thigh muscles.

1996 R. Van Camp Lesser Blessed 7 His pot belly and bubble-butt made him look sadly ballerina-ish.

2012 Gay Times May 144/2 (advt.) An all star cast including bubble butt Riley Price and perfectly sculpted Cameron Marshall.

1944 Proc. U.S. Naval Inst. 70 1062/1 A ‘bubble’ canopy with a flat front windshield gives it a sleeker appearance, and affords the pilot around-the-clock vision.

1983 Flying Mag. Sept. 90/1 It was a Mustang with its long nose, bubble canopy and graceful wings. I had to fly it.

2001 J. C. Fredriksen Internat. Warbirds 331/1 Latter models eventually acquired a lower fuselage and a bubble canopy for better vision.

1957 Financial Times 25 Mar. 7/3 Inquiries were received from Spain, France, Belgium, Sweden and Norway about building the new ‘Frisky’ ‘bubble car’ under licence.

1958 Spectator 13 June 762/1 The tiniest bubble-car I ever set eyes on.

2016 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 5 Nov. 13 (caption) A row of Ferraris always draws a crowd, but oddities such as bubble cars are equally cherished.

1902 U.S. Patent 693,395 1/1 The body A is further formed near one end with a longitudinal cavity or bubble-chamber.

1953 Physical Rev. 91 496/2 (title) A possible ‘bubble chamber’ for the study of ionizing events.

2008 A. H. Stammers & C. C. Trowbridge in G. P. Gravlee et al. Cardiopulmonary Bypass (ed. 3) iv. 49/2 Bubble oxygenators have the heat exchanger downstream from the bubble chamber.

2009 Isis 99 870/2 Images in bubble chambers are not of objects (subatomic particles) themselves but are traces of their motion.

1825 Morning Chron. 31 Mar. The Learned Counsel stated that this was a plain and simple case, not in the slightest degree connected with, or similar to any of the Bubble Companies.

1936 Economist 10 Oct. 71/1 The Macmillan Report contained a melancholy table of losses sustained by subscribers to the bubble company boom of 1928-29.

2002 BusinessWeek 21 Jan. 56/1 The bubble companies that fueled Cisco's growth have largely been wiped off the face of the earth.

1957 J. Braine Room at Top xi. 113 Her picture-postcard face with the dyed red bubble-curls.

1991 Dance Res. 9 51 He flouts every rule of gender (sporting..a white apron, bubble curl wig, dildo and bare bottom).

2001 Mirror (Electronic ed.) 6 Mar. There is simply no mass fashion for scrunching or demi-perms, crimping or bubble curls to disguise any out of condition bits.

1990 Independent (Nexis) 10 Nov. (Weekend section) 44 Nearly all the youngish teachers, bearded men and bubble-curled women, were English, Scottish or Irish.

2013 London Evening Standard (Nexis) 12 July 43 To many he will always be that bubble-curled boy from Tennessee.

1948 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 19 Apr. 9 d/4 (advt.) New! Bubble cut.

1977 J. Rosenthal Spend, Spend, Spend in Bar Mitzvah Boy & Other Television Plays (1987) 172 Bubble-cuts were miles behind the times before my dad let me have one.

2016 Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent) (Nexis) 6 Feb. 2 Her dark hair is styled in the new bubble cut and her eyes are emerald green.

1934 Sheboygan (Wisconsin) Press 7 Sept. 17/6 (advt.) One of Milwaukee's most popular night club bands..featuring the pretty little bubble dancer.

1990 Washington Post (Nexis) 12 Jan. a3 The commercials show golf courses, concerts and nearby Hoover Dam but nary a blackjack table nor bubble dancer.

2011 Dominion Post (Wellington, N.Z.) (Nexis) 26 Sept. 3 Feature performances include a procession of puppets, bubble dancers and fire dancers.

1863 Sat. Rev. 16 May 623/1 The public is once more to be admitted to the deserted halls..an arrangement..more politic than..asking the Prince of Wales to throw new life into the bubble domes.

1963 N.Y. Times 28 May 34/3 The many typical Corbusean devices—sunbreaks..bubble domes..angled panels—contribute substantially to the design.

2016 Age (Melbourne) (Nexis) 28 June Guests who stay in this bubble dome..can enjoy views of the starry night sky, thanks to its 180-degree transparent walls.

1952 L. B. Simpson Exploitation of Land in Central Mexico i. 10 (caption) It may be that sheep raising in the early years is another instance of bubble economy, like silk.

1983 Jrnl. Interamer. Stud. & World Affairs 25 548 It was evident that the Chilean bubble economy had to disinflate.

1990 Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 28 Mar. d4/5 Eiji Suzuki..called the trouble ‘an exposure of (Japan's) bubble economy’ and warned that if the government and the central bank fail to take appropriate measures, ‘the bubble will burst’.

2016 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 8 Apr. (Late ed.) b2 This is an economy on a solid course, not a bubble economy.

1904 Amer. Inventor 1 June 244/3 Among the large number of insects for the extermination of which the use of the extract..has proved completely successful are mentioned the so-called ‘bubble feet’.

1591 E. Spenser Ruines of Time in Complaints 50 Why then dooth flesh, a bubble-glas of breath, Hunt after honour?

1882 Belfast News-Let. 9 Feb. 3/6 Goblets, tumblers, and wines..are so ornamented in the cutting that they have all the charming richness of depth, while the edges are as delicate as the thinnest bubble glass.

1993 B. O'Connor Ursula's Room in Here Comes John 78 Through the bubble glass of our front door is a big pear shape.

2004 G. Woodward I'll go to Bed at Noon ix. 171 In some rooms the bulbs hung naked and dazzling, but here were excess shades, little cylinders of printed fabrics, bubble glass, [etc.].

1982 Jrnl. Inst. Image Electronics Engineers Japan 11 66 (heading) Bubble-jet recording.

1985 PC Week 17 Dec. 59/2 The newest of these technologies is sometimes called bubble-jet, after the Canon printer in which it is incorporated.

1994 A. J. Anderson Found. Computer Technol. (1998) v. 138 Thermal ink jet printers (or bubble jets) are similar to those developed using piezo crystals.

2011 Islington Gaz. (Nexis) 11 Nov. You can just tell by looking at them they're not charity workers. The collection looks like it's been printed on a bubble jet printer, their ID looks like a homemade tag around their necks.

1814 H. M. Williams tr. A. von Humboldt Personal Narr. Trav. II. 114 Giving a horizontal position to the azimuth circle, by means of a bubble level [Fr. niveau à bulle d'air] and a thread level.

1955 Sci. Amer. Jan. 96/2 The usual instrument used for locating the zenith is a transit, which relies on a plumb bob or its counterpart, the bubble level.

2009 J. Meehan Capturing Mood, Ambience & Dramatic Effects 140/1 Using a tripod with a bubble level installed in the camera's accessory shoe is a much more exact and controlled method than the handheld approach.

1965 R. Shambroom & B. Slater Skiing with Control viii. 62/2 Cable cars, gondola lifts (‘bubble’ lifts), and skimobiles are examples of this category.

1999 Financial Times 23 Oct. 2 The antique bubble-lift between Tortin and Chassoure..has finally been replaced.

2016 Tel. (Nexis) 28 Sept. The Lone Peak triple chair will be upgraded to a six-seater bubble lift, providing better access to..the stunning terrain of The Bowl.

1942 Evening Sun (Hanover, Pa.) 21 Nov. 10/1 (advt.) Indoor electric Bubble Christmas Lights.]

1946 Indiana (Pa.) Evening Gaz. 18 Nov. 5/5 Noma Electric Corp. has limited quantities of a new ‘bubble-light’.

1964 Ironwood (Mich.) Daily Globe 1 Dec. 11/4 One teetering post smashed the bubble light on a police car.

1974 Guardian 9 Sept. 9/3 Bubble lights are for mood lighting only.

1991 R. R. McCammon Boy's Life i. i. 19 A black and white Ford with a bubble light on top and the town seal of Zephyr on the driver's door rounded the corner.

2013 K. J. Fowler We are all completely beside Ourselves (2014) v. iii. 234 The bubble-lights gave his dark eyes a holiday twinkle.

1866 Birmingham Daily Post 8 Mar. 4/3 (advt.) The patent bubble machine will throw off hundreds of bubbles without refilling.

1901 P. Pollard Imitator xi. 103 The hum of an approaching automobile reached them,..that purring stage whisper that is still the inalienable right of even the newest ‘bubble’ machine.

1906 N. A. Cobb Some Elem. Plant Pathol. 35 in Rep. Exper. Station Comm. Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Assoc. Given one of the modern toy bubble machines and the restless energy that exists in the ordinary boy and you may witness the production of an almost endless succession of bubbles floating off into space.

1911 Amer. Assoc. Public Accountants 23rd Anniv. Year-bk. 113 The bubble machine, otherwise known as the Taxi, which took me to your Hotel.

2016 Manch. Evening News (Nexis) 29 Feb. A host of entertainment to keep the little ones happy.., including bubble machines, a giant parachute dance and glitter cannons.

1862 H. Mayhew & J. Binny Criminal Prisons of London 46 Cheats, subdivisible into..bubble-men, who institute annuity offices and assurance companies.

1969 IEEE Spectrum Sept. 134/3 The first complete technical description of the much publicized orthoferrite bubble memories recently announced by Bell Telephone Laboratories is now available in the September issue of the IEEE Transactions on Magnetics.

1990 Personal Computer World Aug. 157/3 There have been some spectacular failures in the storage world (who remembers bubble memory?).

2010 L. G. Gref Rise & Fall Amer. Technol. 21 Better yet bubble memory required no moving parts.

1885 Sci. Amer. 11 July 23/3 If its eggs became separated they would fare badly; hence the bubble nest was extemporized to keep them together at the surface.

1916 Copeia No. 28. 18 Lalius utilizes small pieces of plants, roots, algae, etc., to form a somewhat dome-shaped structure... Under this he builds his bubble nest.

1952 G. F. Hervey & J. Hems Freshwater Trop. Aquarium Fishes 303 With some exceptions.., they are bubble-nest builders... The nest varies in size from one and a half to five inches in diameter.

2003 B. J. Abraham et al. Insects & Spiders of World III. 141/1 A froghopper nymph makes its bubble nest by blowing air through watery droppings as it passes out of the anus.

1956 Alton (Illinois) Evening Tel. 1 Feb. 11/8 (advt.) Peg board hooks in bubble packs.

1987 M. Leskard in C. Pearson Conservation Marine Archaeol. Objects 120/1 The container is first padded with small-cell bubble-pack (bubble side out).

1993 Model & Collectors Mart Nov. 40/3 (advt.) Wanted. Dinky Scorpion Tank inc camouflage net in blue based bubble pack.

2009 C. A. Baumbich Stray Affections 27 He added yet another sheet of bubble pack, which he methodically taped in three places.

1992 Guardian (Nexis) 5 Sept. (Tabloid section) 4 His long, lank hair remained unfeathered and unlayered right up until the time he unwisely decided upon a bubble perm from hell some time in the mid-Seventies.

2013 Daily Tel. 19 Mar. 30/1 There was something timeless about The Challenger, especially as there were no obvious visual clues to the period, no bubble perms or shoulder-padded suits.

1989 Today 23 Jan. 32/3 The Mob that bubble-permed Michelle Pfeiffer marries into permanently talk out of the side of their mouths.

2016 Irish Times (Nexis) 11 June 15 Not 10 feet away stood the bubble-permed hotel DJ, whom I'd met at a work party.

1842 D. Davis Man. Magnetism 61 Brass hydrogen bubble pipe.

1872 S. Bleeker Gen. Tom Thumb's Three Years' Tour v. 70 He presented the General with his beautiful and valuable silver bubble-pipe as a remembrance.

1922 Pop. Sci. Monthly Apr. 49/1 The air and lather..formed soap bubbles like those produced by any child with a bubble pipe.

1956 New Outlook Oct. 88/2 The cozy perk of the bubble-pipe sent the warm life blood pulsating through my veins.

2002 Wanderlust Feb. 52/1 Try an apple-flavoured bubble-pipe in one of the traditional teahouses.

2009 J. Silberg Baby Smarts iii. 76 He will..use bubble pipes to blow his own bubbles.

1978 Org. Gardening & Farming Jan. 169/1 Make a lightweight frame covered with..bubble plastic.

2013 S. M. Haskins Save your Stuff Workplace iv. 55 Put a couple of layers of bubble plastic at the bottom of the box.

1871 W. Elder Questions of Day xii. 168 They have arbitrary zero, freezing, temperate, and boiling or bubble points marked upon the mercurical indicator.

1922 Trans. Amer. Electrochem. Soc. 40 176 The slightest trace of grease, oxide or foreign material in contact with the electrode is sufficient to introduce uncertainty and irregularities in the bubble point.

1929 C. S. Cragoe Thermal Prop. Petroleum Products iii. 8 The vapor pressure of a many-component liquid..is defined as the equilibrium pressure on a two-phase system composed of a relatively large volume of liquid and such a small volume of vapor that any decrease in the vapor volume would not alter the pressure appreciably. The temperature at which the vapor pressure, as defined above, is equal to one standard atmosphere is designated the normal bubble point.

1949 Our Industry (Anglo-Iranian Oil Co.) (ed. 2) 330 (Gloss.) Gas saturation pressure (Bubble point), the pressure at which the dissolved gas content of the oil will begin to come out of solution at any given temperature.

2005 M. R. Simmons Twilight in Desert xv. 325 When the reservoir pressure drops below ‘bubble point’ in each key field, the gas dissolved in the oil will immediately begin to emerge from the oil solution and create a gas cap at the top of the reservoir.

1919 Publ. Astron. Soc. Pacific 31 143 The bubble sextant appears to leave very little to be desired as an instrument for aerial navigation.

2014 Times (Nexis) 31 July (Obituaries) 51 Van Kirk shot star sights by bubble sextant from a dome on top of the aircraft.

1802 E. Donovan Nat. Hist. Brit. Shells IV. Pl. CXX It is called ‘the Bubble’ by this writer; who observes that it exactly resembles a bubble or bladder of water.]

1818 Synopsis Contents Brit. Mus. (ed. 14) i. 58 Bulla or bubble-shell.

1831 W. Turton Man. Land & Fresh-water Shells Index Eng. Names 13 Bubble-shell. So called from the thin and inflated appearance...Physa alba. White Bubble-shell...Physa rivalis. River Bubble-shell.

1851 S. P. Woodward Man. Mollusca i. 14 The bubble-shell (phyline), itself predacious, is eaten both by star-fish and sea-anemone.

1942 Billboard 12 Sept. 53/1 (advt.) Sea Shell Necklace,..30 in. strands in..Bubble Shells.

2006 P. Frances et al. Ocean (Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.) (2014) 286/2 If threatened, the bubble shell quickly withdraws into its shell and at the same time regurgitates food.

1887 St. Louis (Missouri) Globe-Democrat 10 Apr. 17/6 (advt.) You can't make large and gorgeous soap-bubbles without the ‘Rainbow Bubble Soap’. Try it and see.

1912 Sci. Amer. 15 June 556/4 Kindly publish in Notes and Queries a formula for a bubble soap. I am informed that bubbles can be blown that are lasting and can be handled.

2009 Slate Mag. (Nexis) 1 Sept. The wand is a massive sword that dips into a long sheath full of bubble soap.

1993 Sinorama (Taipei) Sept. 106 (caption) A nice open space and low prices make ‘bubble tea’ shops more accessible to the average guy, attracting young people in particular and drawing them back to the world of tea.

2016 Montana Standard (Nexis) 4 Sept. The coffee kiosk serves bubble tea, too.

1799 Jrnl. Nat. Philos., Chem., & Arts Dec. 397 The bubble moves most regularly, by equal inclinations of the instrument upon a stage, called the bubble trier.

1890 W. F. Stanley Surveying Instruments 88 The Bubble Trier is a bar or bed 12 to 20 inches long, with two extended feet ending in points at one end, and a micrometer screw, the point of which forms a resting foot, at the other end, thereby forming a tripod.

1987 R. C. Brinker & R. Minnick Surv. Handbk. vi. 187 The laboratory procedure is to set the bubble into a level bubble trier.

1812 A. Rees Cycl. (1819) XX. at Level The most simple form [of the spirit-level] is a ruler of brass, having a bubble tube fixed down upon the middle of it.

1960 H. L. Michael in K. B. Woods et al. Highway Engin. Handbk. ii. 11 Bubble tubes graduated to read either percentage of grade or degree of incline.

2015 J. D. Bossler & N. W. J. Hazelton Leveling & Vertical Location ii. 62/1 When the bubble in the tube was centered, the telescope attached to the bubble tube was level.

1982 Science 26 Feb. 1083/2 Light would never make it from one bubble universe to the next.

1999 Chicago Tribune 30 Jan. i. 5/1 Some cosmologists find it handy to talk about bubble universes, because inflation theory holds that it is the energy of a decaying vacuum that starts the whole thing off in the first place.

2013 L. Billings Five Billion Years Solitude iv. 91 On the other hand, the infinitude of bubble universes incapable of supporting life would appear to be very much larger than the infinitude that could.

1917 Billboard 23 June 47/3 Second-hand scientific soap bubble act..; creates a sensation anywhere presented; complete with..Tennis Rackets, Bubble Wand, Cue Pipes, Straws, [etc.].

1989 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 13 July a9 (caption) Scott.., waving an oversize bubble wand to form a long tubular creation.

2014 K. Laubenthal Nanny's Day 55 Besides bubble wands, I've used spatulas with holes.., a whisk, and slotted spoons.

1988 Harvard Law Rev. 101 1857 Boulder's ‘bubble zone ordinance’ establishes a 100-foot buffer zone around every entrance to a licensed medical facility.

1995 Vancouver Sun 3 Oct. a3/2 A court decision in the U.S. may impact on a planned court challenge to the new bubble-zone law that restricts protests outside B.C. abortion clinics.

2015 D. S. Cohen & K. Connon Living in Crosshairs ix. 246 Bubble zones..are in place in many jurisdictions.

1598 J. Marston Certaine Satyres in Metamorph. Pigmalions Image 59 The haile-shot drops..onely bubble quiet Thetis face.

1668 [implied in: Leather-more: or Advice conc. Gaming (ed. 2) 6 If the Winner be bubbleable, they will..wheadle him into play and win all his Money. (at bubbleable adj.)].

1671 R. H. Char. of Quaker 8 Such Owls as will be bubbled out of their money merely on the Repute of his conscientious dealing.

1675 W. Wycherley Country-wife iii. 37 He is to be bubled of his Mistriss, as of his Money.

1685 M. Hildesley Religio Jurisprudentis xvi. 131 The unjust Steward's Servant..was applauded for making himself Friends of the Mammon of Unrighteousness, by a generous Act (though Knavish) in bubling and cheating his Masters Creditor.

1705 J. Vanbrugh Confederacy i. ii An old daggling cheat, who hobbles about..to bubble the ladies of their money.

1760 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy I. xi. 57 More..people were bubbled out of their goods and money by it in one twelve-month, than by pocket-picking and shop-lifting in seven.

1792 M. Wollstonecraft Vindic. Rights Woman Introd. 2 The understanding of the sex has been so bubbled by this specious homage.

1841 H. Smith Moneyed Man I. xi. 312 You have been preciously bubbled; ludicrously swindled and outwitted.

1889 A. Conan Doyle Micah Clarke xi. 98 They were all to weigh for nothing so long as I had the means of bubbling a few fools out of their guineas.

1980 E. Jong Fanny i. xiv. 116 Now, I'll not be bubbl'd, bamboozl'd, nor troubl'd by a mere Wench—Beauty tho' she be.

2008 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 2 Nov. (Week in Review section) 12/4 Before he was bubbled by Bushies, McCain was one of the most known and knowable quantities in American politics.

1727 P. Walker Some Remarkable Passages Semple, Welwood & Cameron 60 John Knox..left her [sc. Queen Mary] bubbling and greeting.

1890 J. Service Thir Notandums 74 The first ane yokit on him and sent him hame bubblin.

1930 Aberdeen Univ. Rev. Mar. 109 Fat's wrang wi' ye, Mary, at ye'r bibblin' an' greetin' 'at wy?

1977 G. Todd Geordie Words & Phrases 9 Give ower bubblin'.

2000 Sunday Herald (Glasgow) 8 July 19 Taylor has been dispensing with bass players' services, on some gigs, for a while now, but he's now making more than the guitar players in his audiences bubble in these solo concerts.

1940 N. J. Eastman Expectant Motherhood ix. 144 It is therefore a common practice for the mother or nurse to place the baby over her shoulder after nursing, pat him gently on the back and thus release the bubble. This is referred to as ‘bubbling’ the baby.

1946 B. Spock Common Sense Bk. Baby & Child Care 83 You need to ‘bubble’ your baby in the middle of a feeding only if he swallows so much air that it stops his nursing.

1963 M. McCarthy Group x. 221 ‘Someone should have come in to bubble him,’ she said. ‘He swallowed a lot of air.’

2009 P. Sharma Midwifery & Obstetrical Nursing vi. 137 Methods used to bubble the baby are baby placed on shoulders, baby held upright leaning slightly forward, and baby held across the lap.