blow up

Verb

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

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see blow, up.
   • See if you can blow the bubbles up the staircase.
   • Trying blowing up it at an angle instead of directly across it.
2. (also, figuratively, intransitive) To explode or be destroyed by explosion.
   • Why do cars in movies always blow up when they fall off a cliff?
   • 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...1961 January, “Talking of Trains: The Severn Bridge disaster”, in Trains Illustrated, pages 3, 5
3. (also, figuratively, transitive) To 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.
   • More civilians than soldiers have been blown up by anti-personnel mines.
4. (transitive) To 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.
   • 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. (figuratively, transitive) To represent something as being more important or serious than it actually is; to inflate; to exaggerate.
   • 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. (transitive) To enlarge or zoom in on.
   • Blow up the picture to get a better look at their faces.
7. (intransitive) To 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. (intransitive) To 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.
   • 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. (intransitive, slang) To become popular very quickly.
   • This album is about to blow up; they’re being promoted on MTV.
   • 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
10. (intransitive, slang) To suddenly get very angry, to lose one's temper.
    • Dad blew up at me when I told him I was pregnant.
11. (intransitive, slang) To become much more fat or rotund in a short space of time.
12. (dated, transitive) To inflate, as with pride, self-conceit, etc.; to puff up.
    • to blow someone up with flattery
    • blown up with high conceits engendering pride1667, 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...