blow away

present singular third person blows away · participle present blowing away · past blew away · participle past blown away

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see blow, away.
2. transitiveTo cause to go away by blowing, or by wind.

   He blew away the dust which had collected on the book.

   1 more example

   Perhaps as startling as the sheer toll was the devastation to some of the state’s well-known locales. Boardwalks along the beach in Seaside Heights, Belmar and other towns on the Jersey Shore were blown away. Amusement parks, arcades and restaurants all but vanished. Bridges to barrier islands buckled, preventing residents from even inspecting the damage to their property.

   2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, New York Times, retrieved 31 Oct 2012

3. intransitiveTo disperse or to depart on currents of air.

   I didn't have to rake. The leaves just blew away.

4. figurativelyintransitiveTo leave, depart.

   She was like / Jazz on a summer's day / Music, high and sweet / Then she just blew away

   1982, Steve Winwood, Will Jennings, “Valerie”

5. idiomatictransitiveTo kill (someone) by shooting them with a firearm.

   The kid just blew the clerk away.

6. broadlyidiomatictransitiveTo utterly destroy, especially with overwhelming force.

   1 more example

   In the end, the question proved to be academic. When SCP-3125 arrived, whether it knew ω-0 was there or not, it took no special action against it, and had no need to. Most of ω-0's members' anchors were Foundationers, or Foundation-adjacent. With those people's minds blown away in the first strike, the dense web of mutual memory which had held the Task Force together since its formation tore loose. More than half of the Task Force was cast into the void and died; the final, real death they had evaded for years.

   2019 August 26, qntm, “Unthreaded”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, page 162

7. USidiomatictransitiveTo flabbergast; to impress greatly.

   The critics were blown away by their latest album.

8. transitiveTo overwhelm.

   Newcastle were completely blown away during the opening half of the match but worked up a head of steam after the interval that saw them score four goals in 19 minutes against a bruised and beleaguered Arsenal.

   2011 February 5, Paul Fletcher, “Newcastle 4 - 4 Arsenal”, in BBC

9. transitiveTo cause to go away; to get rid of.

   And when skipper Richie McCaw hoisted the Webb Ellis Trophy high into the night, a quarter of a century of hurt was blown away in an explosion of fireworks and cheering.

   2011 October 23, Tom Fordyce, “2011 Rugby World Cup final: New Zealand 8-7 France”, in BBC Sport

10. informaltransitivecomputingTo delete (data, files, etc.).