blow up
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: blows up
form: blowing up
form: blew up
form: blown up
Etymology: From Middle English blow up, blowe up, dissimilated forms of earlier Middle English upblowen (> English upblow), equivalent to blow + up. Compare West Frisian opblaze (“to blow up, inflate”), Dutch opblazen (“to blow up, inflate”), German aufblähen and aufblasen (“to blow up, inflate”), Swedish blåsa upp (“to blow up, inflate”), Icelandic blása upp (“to blow up, inflate”), Gothic 𐌿𐍆𐌱𐌻𐌴𐍃𐌰𐌽 (ufblēsan, “to blow or puff up”).
Senses: examples: text: See if you can blow the bubbles up the staircase.
text: Trying blowing up it at an angle instead of directly across it.
glosses: Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see blow, up.
examples: text: Why do cars in movies always blow up when they fall off a cliff?
text: 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.
ref: 1961 January, “Talking of Trains: The Severn Bridge disaster”, in Trains Illustrated, pages 3, 5:
text: 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. […]”
ref: 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 109:
glosses: To explode or be destroyed by explosion.
examples: text: We had to blow up the bridge before the enemy army arrived.
text: More civilians than soldiers have been blown up by anti-personnel mines.
text: Temporary bridges are now common in Moravia and Slovakia as so many permanent structures were blown up during the last phase of the war.
ref: 1947 January and February, Gerald Druce (Jun.), “A Journey on the "Slovak Arrow"”, in Railway Magazine, page 16:
text: The attempts to rule out multiple equilibria basically state that the government will blow up the economy should accelerating inflation or deflation occur.
ref: 2011, Cochrane, John H., “Determinacy and Identification with Taylor Rules”, in Journal of Political Economy, volume 119, number 3, page 606:
text: "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."
ref: 2023 May 17, Paul Clifton, “Building bridges to Ukraine...”, in RAIL, number 983, page 31:
glosses: To cause (something or someone) to explode, or to destroy (something) or maim or kill (someone) by means of an explosion.
examples: text: For the school science project, each student will blow up a balloon and then tie it closed.
text: 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.
ref: 1904, Jack London, chapter 30, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC:
glosses: To inflate or fill with air, either by literally blowing or by using a pump.
examples: text: Blow up the picture to get a better look at their faces.
glosses: To enlarge or zoom in on.
examples: text: So I wish you luck, but don't come crying to me when it blows up in your face.
ref: 2002, Joan Barfoot, Critical injuries, page 118:
glosses: To fail disastrously.
examples: text: The quantity 1/x blows up as x approaches zero.
text: 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.
ref: 2016, Gavin Hesketh, The Particle Zoo: The Search for the Fundamental Nature of Reality, Quercus Editions Ltd, pages 222–223:
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: To increase without bound as a function argument or parameter approaches a certain value; to tend toward infinity; to approach infinity as a limit.
raw_tags: said of a function
examples: text: This album is about to blow up; they’re being promoted on MTV.
text: You know you blew up when the women rush your stands
And try to touch your hands like some screaming Usher fans […]
ref: 1999, Eminem, “My Name Is”, in The Slim Shady LP:
text: “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.”
ref: 2023 September 25, Becky Hughes, “New York’s Hottest Steakhouse Was a Fake, Until Saturday Night”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
glosses: To become popular very quickly.
examples: text: Dad blew up at me when I told him I was pregnant.
glosses: To suddenly get very angry, to lose one's temper.
glosses: To become much more fat or rotund in a short space of time.
examples: text: to blow someone up with flattery
text: blown up with high conceits engendering pride
ref: 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:
glosses: To inflate, as with pride, self-conceit, etc.; to puff up.
examples: text: to blow up a contention
glosses: To excite.
examples: text: […] 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.
ref: 1807, The Port Folio, page 313:
text: #*: I have blown him up well — nobody can say I wink at what he does.
ref: 1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 13, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book II:
glosses: To scold violently, blow up at.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To blow the whistle.
topics: cycling
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To succumb to oxygen debt and lose the ability to maintain pace in a race.
examples: text: I blew up another department's API servers – did I screw up or should they have more protections?
ref: 2024 May 24, “AskProgramming”, in Reddit:
synonyms: word: break#Verb
english: of a device, machine, or system
translation: of a device, machine, or system
word: deadlock#Verb
word: knock over
word: kill#Verb
word: overload#Verb
word: max out
word: take down
word: take out
qualifier: machine; system; or establishment; machine; system; or establishment
glosses: To overwhelm through unexpectedly high demand, activity, usage, traffic volume, etc.
raw_tags: of a device
examples: text: blow up the spot;   blow up someone's spot
text: Be cool! Keep it on the down low. Don't blow up my spot!
synonyms: word: break#Verb
english: of a device, machine, or system
translation: of a device, machine, or system
word: deadlock#Verb
word: knock over
word: kill#Verb
word: overload#Verb
word: max out
word: take down
word: take out
qualifier: machine; system; or establishment
glosses: To overwhelm through unexpectedly high demand, activity, usage, traffic volume, etc.
To overwhelm (a place) with traffic or volume by revealing its existence to others.
raw_tags: of a hangout
of a device
examples: text: blow up someone's phone
text: I had to mute the notifications for that group text. Those hooligans kept blowing up my phone.
text: 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.
ref: 2007, “Fucc & Git Up”, in DZ (lyrics), Sleepless City Livin, performed by DZ ft. Gangsta Nutt, from 1:59:
text: 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?”
ref: 2009, RM Johnson, Why Men Fear Marriage: The Surprising Truth Behind Why So Many Men Can't Commit, →ISBN:
text: 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.
ref: 2011, Jaime Reed, Living Violet, →ISBN, page 67:
text: Not knowing the whereabouts of his daughter, Tavon blew up her phone without once getting a response.
ref: 2012, Chris Hicks, Ebony Chronicles of Elevation, volume 1, →ISBN, page 181:
text: He has never officially said that we are in a relationship, but he blows up my phone night and day, always wanting to know where I am.
ref: 2013, Michelle McKinney Hammond, The Real Deal on Love and Men, →ISBN:
text: “Danny Cipriani is blowing up my phone saying: ‘I’m going to sue you’,” she said, shortly before announcing her willingness to go to prison over the issue.
ref: 2014 September 11, Alexis Petridis, quoting Kelly Brook, “A freedom fighter for our time: Kelly Brook will not be silenced over Danny Cipriani”, in The Guardian:
text: They're blowing up our phones, asking where we are / Just say we're almost there; we ain't even in the car
ref: 2015, Kacey Musgraves, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
synonyms: word: break#Verb
english: of a device, machine, or system
translation: of a device, machine, or system
word: deadlock#Verb
word: knock over
word: kill#Verb
word: overload#Verb
word: max out
word: take down
word: take out
qualifier: machine; system; or establishment; or similar; or similar
glosses: To overwhelm through unexpectedly high demand, activity, usage, traffic volume, etc.
To bombard with a large number of calls, texts, or notifications, to the point of rendering temporarily unusable or exasperating the recipient.
raw_tags: of a cell phone
of a device
examples: text: There were so many incoming enemy planes that our monitoring and notification system blew up before the base was even able to respond.
synonyms: word: break#Verb
english: of a device, machine, or system
translation: of a device, machine, or system
word: deadlock#Verb
word: overload#Verb
word: max out
qualifier: machine; system; or establishment; machine; system; or establishment
glosses: To be overwhelmed by unexpectedly high demand, usage, activity, traffic volume, etc.
raw_tags: of a device
examples: text: Damn, my spot blew up. Time to find the next one.
synonyms: word: break#Verb
english: of a device, machine, or system
translation: of a device, machine, or system
word: deadlock#Verb
word: overload#Verb
word: max out
qualifier: machine; system; or establishment
glosses: To be overwhelmed by unexpectedly high demand, usage, activity, traffic volume, etc.
To be overwhelmed with traffic or volume.
raw_tags: of a hangout
of a device
examples: text: one's phone is blowing up
text: I had to mute the notifications for that group text. My phone kept blowing up every day.
text: Halfway home, and my pager's still blowin' up
ref: 1992, Ice Cube, “It Was A Good Day”, in The Predator:
synonyms: word: break#Verb
english: of a device, machine, or system
translation: of a device, machine, or system
word: deadlock#Verb
word: overload#Verb
word: max out
qualifier: machine; system; or establishment; or similar; or similar
glosses: To be overwhelmed by unexpectedly high demand, usage, activity, traffic volume, etc.
To receive a large number of calls, texts, or notifications, to the point of being rendered temporarily unusable or exasperating the recipient.
raw_tags: of a cell phone
of a device
examples: text: Don't go in there...I really blew it up.
synonyms: bomb
glosses: To cause a malodorous smell by flatulation, defecation, etc.
examples: text: A storm is blowing up in the north.
glosses: To begin; to gather; to form.
raw_tags: of a storm
glosses: To use an intoxicating drug; to get high.
Derived terms: word: blowing up
word: blow me up
word: blow someone's skirt up
word: blow-up
word: blow up in one's face
word: blow up one's spot
word: blow up someone's spot
word: blow up the spot
word: blow up the tote