blow

Verb (1)

blow (third-person singular simple present blows, present participle blowing, simple past blew, past participle blown)

1. (intransitive) To produce an air current.
   • Lear. Blow windes, & crack your cheeks; Rage, blow / You Cataracts, and Hyrricano's ſpout,c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
   • Tend to th' Maſters whiſtle: Blow till thou burſt thy winde, if roome enough.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
2. (transitive) To propel by an air current (or, if under water, a water current), usually with the mouth.
   • Blow the dust off that book and open it up.
   • To-night the winds begin to rise
     ⁠And roar from yonder dropping day:
     ⁠The last red leaf is whirl’d away,
     The rooks are blown about the skies; […]1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 24
3. (intransitive) To be propelled by an air current.
   • The leaves blow through the streets in the fall.
   • What stormy weather —the roofs are blowing off!
4. (figuratively, transitive) To direct or move, usually of a person to a particular location.
   • "This is an unexpected pleasure!" exclaimed he. "What good fortune blows Lady Marchmont hither?"1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Friend at Court”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 260
5. (transitive) To create or shape by blowing.
   • to blow bubbles
   • to blow glass
6. (transitive) To force a current of air upon with the mouth, or by other means.
   • to blow the fire
7. (transitive) To clear of contents by forcing air through.
   • to blow an egg
   • to blow one’s nose
8. (transitive) To cause to make sound by blowing (as a musical instrument).
   • Blow your horn! That car is about to hit us!
9. (intransitive) To make a sound as a result of being blown.
   • In the harbor, the ships’ horns blew.
   • There let the pealing organ blow,a. 1645, John Milton, “Il Penseroso”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 43
10. (intransitive) To exhale visibly through the spout the seawater which it has taken in while feeding.
    • There’s nothing more thrilling to the whale watcher than to see a whale surface and blow.
    • There she blows! (i.e. “I see a whale spouting!”)
11. (intransitive) To burst or explode; to occur suddenly
    • Get away from that burning gas tank! It’s about to blow!
    • Hitler is very, very important, and something's going to blow in Europe.1971, Herman Wouk, The Winds of War, page 12
12. (transitive) To cause to explode, shatter, or be utterly destroyed.
    • The demolition squad neatly blew the old hotel up.
    • The aerosol can was blown to bits.

Noun (1)

blow (countable and uncountable, plural blows)

1. A strong wind.
   • We’re having a bit of a blow this afternoon.
   • Now they were faced with the problem of a northerly blow, which could soon send a heavy swell clean into the bay.1956 September, F. F. Nicholls, “Neyland, A Forgotten Harbour”, in Railway Magazine, page 632
2. (informal) A chance to catch one's breath.
   • The players were able to get a blow during the last timeout.
3. (US, slang, uncountable) Powder cocaine.
   • Hi there, you're a pretty cute chick, want to snort some blow?1982, Slava Tsukerman, Anne Carlisle, Nina V. Kerova, Liquid Sky
   • Hey man, you wanna cop some blow? / Sure, what you got, dust, flakes or rocks?1983, “White Lines (Don't Do It)”, performed by Grandmaster Melle Mel

   Synonyms:

   snow, nose candy, benzoylmethylecgonine, Bolivian marching powder, booger sugar, boots, California corn flakes, charlie, ching, coke

4. (UK, slang, uncountable) Cannabis.

   Synonyms:

   bhang, benj, boo, broccoli, bud, buddha, cannabis, cheeba, choof, daccha

5. (slang, uncountable, Chicago dialectal) Heroin.

   Synonyms:

   Big H, boy, brown sugar, brown, bujj, diacetylmorphine, diamorphine, dog food, dope, dugee

6. (informal, vulgar) A blowjob; fellatio.
   • His girlfriend gave him a blow.

   Synonyms:

   brain, dome, head, mouth music, neck, Kirk

7. An instance of using high-pressure air to empty water from the ballast tanks of a submarine, increasing the submarine's buoyancy and causing it to surface.
   • The sounding of the alarm was the signal to begin the emergency blow maneuver. At this time, witnesses reported, the guest at the high-pressure air controls operated the levers under close supervision of Navy personnel, and the submarine started to rise at a sharp angle.2005 September 29, National Transportation Safety Board, “Emergency Evolutions”, in Marine Accident Brief: Collision between the U.S. Navy Submarine USS Greeneville and Japanese Motor Vessel Ehime...

Interjection

1. Used to express displeasure or frustration.
   • Blow the expense!
   • [H]e suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said 'Bother!' and 'Oh blow!' and also 'Hang spring-cleaning!' and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat.1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, “The River Bank”, in The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, pages 1–2

Adjective

blow (comparative blower or more blow, superlative blowest or most blow)

1. (otherwise obsolete) Blue.

Noun (2)

blow (plural blows)

1. An instance of the act of striking or hitting.
   • A fabricator is used to direct a sharp blow to the surface of the stone.
   • During an exchange to end round 13, Duran landed a blow to the midsection.

   Synonyms:

   bace, strike, hit, punch

2. A sudden or forcible act or effort; an assault.
   • There he found that […] Hanno's camp was crowded with cattle and carriages, and a mixed multitude of unarmed men, and even of women and children; and that a vigorous blow might win it with all its spoil: the indefatigable general was absent, scouring the country for additional supplies of corn.1843, Thomas Arnold, “Progress of the War in Italy after the Battle of Cannæ. […]”, in J[ulius] C[harles] Hare, editor, History of Rome, volume III (From the End of the First to the End of the Second...
3. A damaging occurrence.
   • A further blow to the group came in 1917 when Thomson died while canoeing in Algonquin Park.
   • a most poor man, made tame to fortune's blowsc. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

   Synonyms:

   disaster, calamity

4. (Australia, historical, shearing) A cut made to a sheep's fleece by a shearer using hand-shears.
   • Click goes his shears; click, click, click. / Wide are the blows, and his hand is moving quick, / The ringer looks round, for he lost it by a blow, / And he curses that old shearer with the bare belled ewe.1891 December 5, The Bacchus Marsh Express, Victoria, page 7, column 7
5. (Australia, New Zealand) An outcrop of quartz from surrounding rock, thought to indicate mineral deposits below.
   • "Blows" of quartz, crop out above the layers of slate, granite, and sandstone formation.1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 315
6. Synonym of button (“the punchy or suspenseful line of dialogue that concludes a scene”).
   • The blow is important because it transitions the reader and eventually the audience from one scene to another.2014, Martie Cook, Write to TV: Out of Your Head and onto the Screen, page 105

   Synonyms:

   button

Verb (2)

blow (third-person singular simple present blows, present participle blowing, simple past blew, past participle blown)

1. To blossom; to cause to bloom or blossom.
   • You ſeeme to me as Diane in her Orbe, / As chaſte as is the budde ere it be blowne:1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
   • How blows the citron grove.1667, John Milton, “Book V”, 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...

Noun (3)

blow (plural blows)

1. A state of flowering; a bloom.
   • roses in full blow
   • [F]lowers that in perennial blow / Round the moist marge of Persian fountains cling; […]1820, William Wordsworth, “The River Duddon. A Series of Sonnets. Sonnet I.”, in The River Duddon: A Series of Sonnets: Vaudracour and Julia; and Other Poems. […], London: […] [Andrew and Robert...
2. A display or mass of flowers; a yield.
   • [H]e believed he could shew me such a blow of tulips as was not to be matched in the whole country.1710 September 10 (Gregorian calendar), Isaac Bickerstaff [et al., pseudonyms; Joseph Addison], “Wednesday, August 31, 1710”, in The Tatler, number 218; republished in [Richard Steele], editor, The...
   • Passing the apple-tree blows of white and pink in the orchards; / Carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave, / Night and day journeys a coffin.1865 (indicated as 1865–1866), Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps. […] When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d. And Other Pieces, Washington, D.C....
3. (figuratively) A display of anything bright or brilliant.

Proper noun capitalized: Blow

Blow (plural Blows)

1. A surname.