blow up

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

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see blow, up.

   See if you can blow the bubbles up the staircase.

   1 more example

   Trying blowing up it at an angle instead of directly across it.

2. alsofigurativelyintransitiveTo explode or be destroyed by explosion.

   Why do cars in movies always blow up when they fall off a cliff?

   3 more examples

   In dense fog at about 10.25 p.m. on the night of October 25, two tank barges carrying petroleum [...] missed the entrance to the docks at Sharpness and were carried up the River Severn by the incoming tide. They collided with one of the piers of the Severn Bridge, carrying the Berkeley Road-Lydney branch of the Western Region, and as a result of the collision both tankers blew up.

   1961 January, “Talking of Trains: The Severn Bridge disaster”, in Trains Illustrated, pages 3, 5

   There were so many things she wanted to know so desperately that Jessamy began to feel she would burst if she did not find out at once. At last, throwing caution to the winds, she put down the basket with a bump. “Kitto, I must ask you or I shall blow up. […]”

   1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 109

   The world's smallest violin / Really needs an audience / So if I do not find somebody soon (That's right, that's right) / I'll blow up into smithereens

   2021 March 26, AJR, “World's Smallest Violin”, in OK Orchestra, US: AJR Productions, BMG Rights Management, →OCLC

3. alsofigurativelytransitiveTo cause (something or someone) to explode, or to destroy (something) or maim or kill (someone) by means of an explosion.

   We had to blow up the bridge before the enemy army arrived.

   4 more examples

   More civilians than soldiers have been blown up by anti-personnel mines.

   Temporary bridges are now common in Moravia and Slovakia as so many permanent structures were blown up during the last phase of the war.

   1947 January and February, Gerald Druce (Jun.), “A Journey on the "Slovak Arrow"”, in Railway Magazine, page 16

   The attempts to rule out multiple equilibria basically state that the government will blow up the economy should accelerating inflation or deflation occur.

   2011, Cochrane, John H., “Determinacy and Identification with Taylor Rules”, in Journal of Political Economy, volume 119, number 3, page 606

   "But we wanted to be more ambitious. We had established contacts with the Ukrainian railways, and they had all sorts of needs. Bridges blown up by the Russians, but also bridges blown up by themselves in tactical battlefield operations."

   2023 May 17, Paul Clifton, “Building bridges to Ukraine...”, in RAIL, number 983, page 31

4. transitiveTo inflate or fill with air, either by literally blowing or by using a pump.

   For the school science project, each student will blow up a balloon and then tie it closed.

   1 more example

   never did it ring more loudly than that night, as I watched her draw back the blanket of moss from the coals, blow up the fire, and cook the evening meal.

   1904, Jack London, chapter 30, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC

5. figurativelytransitiveTo represent something as being more important or serious than it actually is; to inflate; to exaggerate.

   By scrupulosity, I mean an exaggerated amount of self-condemnation over small issues that you blow up in your mind as terrible.

   2022 April 28, Robert Enright Ph.D., “Why Self-Loathing Has a Positive Quality to It”, in Psychology Today

   2 more examples

   The foreign secretary David Miliband's emphasis that this is purely a consular matter is intended to forestall an attempt by Iranian hardliners to blow the incident up.

   2009 December 1, Ian Black, “Fear that Iran will raise tensions over detention of British yachtsmen”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 08 Sep 2013

   Lena insists the moment wasn't as awkward as it looked, and the coverage blew it up to be something way bigger than it actually was IRL.

   2020 May 13, Dusty Baxter-Wright, “Lena Dunham explains what really happened with awkward Brad Pitt kiss”, in Cosmopolitan, archived from the original on 18 Jun 2023

6. transitiveTo enlarge or zoom in on.

   Blow up the picture to get a better look at their faces.

7. intransitiveTo fail disastrously.

   So I wish you luck, but don't come crying to me when it blows up in your face.

   2002, Joan Barfoot, Critical injuries, page 118

8. intransitivemathematicsTo increase without bound as a function argument or parameter approaches a certain value; to tend toward infinity; to approach infinity as a limit.

   The quantity 1/x blows up as x approaches zero.

   1 more example

   And these loops have a tendency to blow up, to borrow more and more energy by becoming smaller and smaller, eventually borrowing an infinite amount of energy. When a calculation returns an infinite answer, this usually means something has gone badly wrong.

   2016, Gavin Hesketh, The Particle Zoo: The Search for the Fundamental Nature of Reality, Quercus Editions Ltd, pages 222–223

9. intransitiveslangTo become popular very quickly.

   This album is about to blow up; they’re being promoted on MTV.

   2 more examples

   You know you blew up when the women rush your stands And try to touch your hands like some screaming Usher fans […]

   1999, Eminem, “My Name Is”, in The Slim Shady LP

   “It was artsy,” Mr. Skorupski said, likening it to a cross between a steakhouse and MoMA. “This is a place that’s going to blow up.”

   2023 September 25, Becky Hughes, “New York’s Hottest Steakhouse Was a Fake, Until Saturday Night”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

10. intransitiveslangTo suddenly get very angry, to lose one's temper.

    Dad blew up at me when I told him I was pregnant.

11. intransitiveslangTo become much more fat or rotund in a short space of time.
12. datedtransitiveTo inflate, as with pride, self-conceit, etc.; to puff up.

    to blow someone up with flattery

    1 more example

    blown up with high conceits engendering pride

    1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

13. datedtransitiveTo excite.

    to blow up a contention

14. datedtransitiveTo scold violently, blow up at.

    #*: I have blown him up well — nobody can say I wink at what he does.

    1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 13, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book II

    1 more example

    […] did not choose to comply with her wishes. Upon which Mrs. Basset, in the language of the Old Bailey, nabbed the rust; insisted upon some liquor, would not quit the house without it, and began to blow up the hostess and blast the rose.

    1807, The Port Folio, page 313

15. hobbiesTo blow the whistle.
16. intransitivecyclingTo succumb to oxygen debt and lose the ability to maintain pace in a race.
17. slangtransitivemachine; system; or establishment; machine; system; or establishmentTo overwhelm through unexpectedly high demand, activity, usage, traffic volume, etc.

    I blew up another department's API servers – did I screw up or should they have more protections?

    2024 May 28, “AskProgramming”, in Reddit

    Synonyms: break, deadlock, knock over, kill, overload, max out, take down, take out

    1. slangtransitivemachine; system; or establishmentTo overwhelm (a place) with traffic or volume by revealing its existence to others.

       blow up the spot;   blow up someone's spot

       1 more example

       Be cool! Keep it on the down low. Don't blow up my spot!

       Synonyms: break, deadlock, knock over, kill, overload, max out, take down, take out

    2. slangtransitivemachine; system; or establishment; or similar; or similarTo bombard with a large number of calls, texts, or notifications, to the point of rendering temporarily unusable or exasperating the recipient.

       blow up someone's phone

       5 more examples

       I had to mute the notifications for that group text. Those hooligans kept blowing up my phone.

       I am the man So I’m sitting in the VIP with my mains We twisted up some Crip but I am ready to dip to the telly with my relly cuz these fuckin git up chicks keep blowin up my celly.

       2007, “Fucc & Git Up”, in DZ (lyrics), Sleepless City Livin, performed by DZ ft. Gangsta Nutt, from 1:59

       Don't let them sabotage a possible good thing by blowing up your phone while you're in the middle of a hot date with nonsense like, “Jason keeps asking for a Popsicle before bed. Do you think it's okay that I give him one?”

       2009, RM Johnson, Why Men Fear Marriage: The Surprising Truth Behind Why So Many Men Can't Commit, →ISBN

       Dad sure knew how to kill a mood. He had blown up my phone all day, ensuring that I didn't back out of our agreement.

       2011, Jaime Reed, Living Violet, →ISBN, page 67

       Not knowing the whereabouts of his daughter, Tavon blew up her phone without once getting a response.

       2012, Chris Hicks, Ebony Chronicles of Elevation, volume 1, →ISBN, page 181

       Synonyms: break, deadlock, knock over, kill, overload, max out, take down, take out

18. intransitiveslangmachine; system; or establishment; machine; system; or establishmentTo be overwhelmed by unexpectedly high demand, usage, activity, traffic volume, etc.

    There were so many incoming enemy planes that our monitoring and notification system blew up before the base was even able to respond.

    Synonyms: break, deadlock, overload, max out

    1. intransitiveslangmachine; system; or establishmentTo be overwhelmed with traffic or volume.

       Damn, my spot blew up. Time to find the next one.

       Synonyms: break, deadlock, overload, max out

    2. intransitiveslangmachine; system; or establishment; or similar; or similarTo receive a large number of calls, texts, or notifications, to the point of being rendered temporarily unusable or exasperating the recipient.

       one's phone is blowing up

       2 more examples

       I had to mute the notifications for that group text. My phone kept blowing up every day.

       Halfway home, and my pager's still blowin' up

       1992, Ice Cube, “It Was A Good Day”, in The Predator

       Synonyms: break, deadlock, overload, max out

19. colloquialslangTo cause a malodorous smell by flatulation, defecation, etc.

    Don't go in there...I really blew it up.

    Synonyms: bomb

20. intransitiveTo begin; to gather; to form.

    A storm is blowing up in the north.

21. datedintransitiveslangTo use an intoxicating drug; to get high.