Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Topic: NATURE

Language: Old English
Origin: blawan

blow

1 verb
     
blow1 S2 W3 past tense blew past participle blown
1

wind moving

[intransitive and transitive]DN if the wind or a current of air blows, it moves:
A cold breeze was blowing hard.
It was blowing from an easterly direction.
Outside, the weather was blowing a gale.
2

wind moving something

[intransitive,transitive usually + adverb/preposition]DN to move or to move something by the force of the wind or a current of air:
Her hair was blowing in the breeze.
The wind blew the rain into our faces.
My ticket blew away.
blow (something) open/shut
A sudden draught blew the door shut.
3

air from your mouth

[intransitive,transitive always + adverb/preposition] to send air out from your mouth
blow (something) into/onto/out etc
She blew onto her coffee to cool it down.
He blew the smoke right in my face.
4

make a noise

[intransitive and transitive]APM to make a sound by passing air through a whistle, horn etc:
The whistle blew for halftime.
A truck went by and blew its horn at her.
5

violence

[transitive always + adverb/preposition] to damage or destroy something violently with an explosion or by shooting
blow something away/out/off something
Part of his leg had been blown off.
blow something/somebody to pieces/bits/smithereens
A bomb like that could blow you to bits.
6

lose an opportunity

[transitive] informal to lose a good opportunity by making a mistake or by being careless:
We've blown our chances of getting that contract.
You've got a great future ahead of you. Don't blow it.
7

waste money

[transitive] informal to spend a lot of money in a careless way, especially on one thing:
I blew all the money I won on a trip to Hawaii.
8

blow your nose

to clean your nose by forcing air through it into a cloth or a piece of soft paper
9

blow somebody a kiss

to kiss your hand and then pretend to blow the kiss towards someone:
She leant out of the window and blew him a kiss.
10

electricity stops

[intransitive and transitive]TEE if an electrical fuse blows, or a piece of electrical equipment blows a fuse, the electricity suddenly stops working because a thin wire has melted:
The floodlights blew a fuse.
11

tyre

[intransitive and transitive]TTC if a tyre blows or if a car blows a tyre, it bursts
12

make a shape

[transitive] to make or shape something by sending air out from your mouth:
The kids were blowing bubbles in the backyard.
blow glass (=shape glass by blowing into it when it is very hot and soft)
13

surprise/annoyance

blow/blow me/blow it etc

British English spoken said to show annoyance or surprise:
Blow it! I forgot to phone Jane.
Blow me down if she didn't just run off!
14

tell a secret

[transitive] to make known something that was meant to be a secret:
Your coming here has blown the whole operation.
blow somebody's cover (=make known what someone's real job or name is)
It would only take one phone call to blow his cover.
15

blow somebody's mind

spoken to make you feel very surprised and excited by something:
Seeing her again really blew my mind.
 ➔ mind-blowing
16

blow your top/stack/cool

also

blow a fuse/gasket

informal to become extremely angry quickly or suddenly:
One day, I just blew my top and hit him.
17

blow the whistle on somebody

informal to tell someone in authority about something wrong that someone is doing:
He blew the whistle on his colleagues.
 ➔ whistle-blower
18

blow something (up) out of (all) proportion

to make something seem much more serious or important than it is
19

blow your own trumpet

especially British English also

blow your own horn

American English informal to talk a lot about your own achievements - used to show disapproval:
Dave spent the whole evening blowing his own trumpet.
20

blow somebody/something out of the water

to defeat someone or something that you are competing with, or to achieve much more than they do:
Motown had blown all the other record companies out of the water.
21

blow hot and cold

British English informal to keep changing your attitude towards someone or something
22

blow something sky-high

British English to destroy an idea, plan etc by showing that it cannot be true or effective:
This new information blows his theory sky-high.

blow sb↔ away

phrasal verb
1 to make someone feel very surprised, especially about something they like or admire:
It just blows me away, the way everyone's so friendly round here.
2 to kill someone by shooting them with a gun
3 to defeat someone completely, especially in a game:
Nancy blew away the rest of the skaters.

blow down

phrasal verb
DN if the wind blows something down, or if something blows down, the wind makes it fall:
The garden gate has blown down.
blow something ↔ down
Several trees were blown down in the night.

blow in

phrasal verb
1 also blow into something informal to arrive in a place, especially suddenly:
Jim blew in about an hour ago.
Guess who's just blown into town?
2 if a storm or bad weather blows in, it arrives and begins to affect a particular area:
The first snowstorm blew in from the north.

blow somebody/something ↔ off

phrasal verb
1 to treat someone or something as unimportant, for example by not meeting someone or not going to an event:
Bud got into trouble for blowing off the meeting.
2

blow the lid off something

to make known something that was secret, especially something involving important or famous people:
Her book blew the lid off the Reagan years.
3

blow somebody's head off

to kill someone by shooting them in the head
4

blow off steam

American English to get rid of anger or energy by doing something [= let off steam British English]
I went jogging to blow off some steam.

blow out

phrasal verb
1 if you blow a flame or a fire out, or if it blows out, it stops burning:
The match blew out in the wind.
blow something ↔ out
Blow out all the candles.
2TTC if a tyre blows out, it bursts
3

blow itself out

DN if a storm blows itself out, it ends
4

blow your/somebody's brains out

to kill yourself or someone else with a shot to the head
5

blow somebody ↔ out

American English spoken to easily defeat someone:
We blew them out 28 - 0.
6 American English if you blow out your knee or another joint in your body, or if it blows out, you injure it badly
7TPG if an oil or gas well blows out, oil or gas suddenly escapes from it
8

blow somebody out

to stop having a friendship or relationship with someone

blow over

phrasal verb
1 if the wind blows something over, or if something blows over, the wind makes it fall:
Our fence blew over in the storm.
blow something ↔ over
The hurricane blew some palm trees over.
2 if an argument or unpleasant situation blows over, it ends or is forgotten:
They weren't speaking to each other, but I think it's blown over now.
3DN if a storm blows over, it goes away

blow up

phrasal verb
1 to destroy something, or to be destroyed, by an explosion:
The plane blew up in mid-air.
blow something ↔ up
Rebels attempted to blow up the bridge.
2TTC

blow something ↔ up

to fill something with air or gas:
Can you blow up this balloon?
We'll blow the tyres up.
3 if a situation, argument etc blows up, it suddenly becomes important or dangerous:
A crisis had blown up over the peace talks.
4TCP

blow something ↔ up

if you blow up a photograph, you make it larger [= enlarge]
5 informal to become very angry with someone:
Jenny's father blew up when she didn't come home last night.
blow up at
I was surprised at the way he blew up at Hardy.
6DN if bad weather blows up, it suddenly arrives:
It looks as if there's a storm blowing up.
7

blow up in somebody's face

if something you have done or planned to do blows up in your face, it suddenly goes wrong:
One of his deals had just blown up in his face.
Definition of blow from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English within
the topic NATURE
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