Word: blowoff Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Deverbal from blow off. 1. Something that is blown off. Example: It is evident that if the outlet pipes were only of the same total area as the blowoff from the boiler the pressure in the tank would very soon equal that in the boiler . Example: However, the cirrus blowoff from the top of the cumulonimbus clouds indicates an easterly component, or less of a westerly component, in the upper troposphere. 2. The explosive separation of part of a rocket etc in order to prevent its destruction and allow for retrieval 3. The act of blowing off (steam, water, atmosphere, etc.) Example: All blowoffs were effected by slowly decreasing the burner pressure at intervals of air temperature, airflow, and fuel flow. Example: Some investigators claim that snow blowoff from cropland in prairie areas not protected by shelterbelts may be as much as 50 to 75 percent (Gorshenin et al. 1934), and, as a consequence, protected fields get 2½ to 3 times as much moisture from snow as unprotected land. 4. A line or pipe for draining a siphon (for cleaning, inspection, etc.) Example: The blowoff line runs from the lowest water drum, or mud drum, as it is commonly known, to the sewer , river or circulating water discharge . Example: The level of fluid in the main trap will have moved down the same distance the level in the blowoff trap has moved . 5. The removal of excess foam and carbon dioxide from the fermentation vessel during the active fermentation stage. Example: I performed several experiments to determine the effect of the blowoff method of fermentation on bitterness, protein, and higher alcohols. Example: This blowoff method is wasteful because you lose a couple of quarts of beer, but it is the best way to reconcile the sanitation advantages of a closed fermenter with the behavior of top cropping yeast strains. 6. A period of rapid and usually unsustainable increase (or, sometimes, decrease) in market prices. Example: Often this throwing-in-the-towel mentality is pure crowd following and results in entry at the blowoff phase of the trend . Example: A crash in china would reverberate across Asia, and a blowoff that resulted in political instability would have dire consequences. 7. A curt or uninterested dismissal; a failure to respond adequately. Example: He tried to get it fixed but they gave him the blowoff. Example: People have no trouble detecting, and resenting, a blowoff. 8. The stage in a con game in which one gets rid of the mark after taking his or her money. Example: Then comes the blowoff, by which they get rid of him . Example: White grifters call it the blowoff. 9. The exit of a crowd from a circus or carnival act. Example: The most dramatic blowoff I have witnessed was at the single-O side-show featuring Atasha the Gorilla Girl, which actually frightened patrons out of the show. Example: Margarita is going to hire you to sell her toys in the ring, so she can run the toy stand out in the midway and catch the blowoff crowd when people leave the big top. 10. An extra attraction offered to the audience of a sideshow or carnival act, usually hidden behind a curtain and requiring an additional payment; aftershow. Example: Not in the girlie shows, stripping naked for the yokenecks who give up a couple of bucks for the blowoff. The aftershow. Example: Some showmen reserve their best acts or exhibits for the blowoff. 11. A finale. Example: All the way, we played cards, smoked, and laughed over how Gloria and this other skater got in this fight for every night's blowoff . Example: Patterson, who had just come off the Alley Fight blowoff to his feud with Sarge, was looking for something new to do, and had decided that a feud with Mosca would be his next adventure. 12. A fight that marks the culmination of a long period of antagonism. Example: The blowoff came when Johnny went to bat again in the sixth frame . Example: The unwilling storm center of last year's Army-McCarthy blowoff, Civilian Schine planned to take up his chores ( for which he drew handsome salaries throughout his Army days) as president and general manager of his father's nation-spanning chain of five hotels (e.g. Forida's Boca Raton, Los Angeles' Ambassador) and as boss of a string of more than 150 movie houses. 13. An outburst of temper or excitement. Labels: colloquial Example: Besides, I had come down for rest and the kind of blowoff a man needs after five months of being snowed in and working his tail off. Example: He either talked along about home or else he paced up and down his cage silently and you could tell there was a big blowoff coming . 14. An act of oral sex. Example: It was a general saying that lumberjacks talked of their town experiences in the campa and that they did their expert logging in the saloons and in the houses of prostitution. Blowoffs before the ladies . Example: Through Oregon and Washington we were cut down quite a bit; we couldn't give the blowoff and we couldn't strip all the way and things like that. 15. A fart. Labels: UK, slang 16. A class that does not require much effort to pass; a course where one does not have to work. Example: And finally, if you think this is going to be an easy, blowoff class, you're sorely mistaken. Example: And, for sixth period, the last one, he had General Business. Probably and hopefully a blowoff.