blows 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.
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?
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.
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.
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
6. (transitive) To enlarge or zoom in on.
   • Blow up the picture to get a better look at their faces.

See all 25 meanings of blow up