blow up

== English == === Etymology === From Middle English blow up, blowe up, dissimilated forms of earlier Middle English upblowen (> English upblow), equivalent to blow +‎ up. Compare West Frisian opblaze (“to blow up, inflate”), Dutch opblazen (“to blow up, inflate”), German aufblähen and aufblasen (“to blow up, inflate”), Swedish blåsa upp (“to blow up, inflate”), Icelandic blása upp (“to blow up, inflate”), Gothic 𐌿𐍆𐌱𐌻𐌴𐍃𐌰𐌽 (ufblēsan, “to blow or puff up”). === Pronunciation === === Verb === blow up (third-person singular simple present blows up, present participle blowing up, simple past blew up, past participle blown up) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see blow,‎ up. (intransitive, also figuratively) To explode or be destroyed by explosion. (transitive, also figuratively) To cause (something or someone) to explode, or to destroy (something) or maim or kill (someone) by means of an explosion. (transitive) To inflate or fill with air, either by literally blowing or by using a pump. (transitive, figuratively) To represent something as being more important or serious than it actually is; to inflate; to exaggerate. (transitive) To enlarge or zoom in on. (intransitive) To fail disastrously. (intransitive, mathematics, said of a function) To increase without bound as a function argument or parameter approaches a certain value; to tend toward infinity; to approach infinity as a limit. (slang, intransitive) To become popular very quickly. (intransitive, slang) To suddenly get very angry, to lose one's temper. (intransitive, slang) To become much more fat or rotund in a short space of time. (transitive, dated) To inflate, as with pride, self-conceit, etc.; to puff up. (transitive, dated) To excite. (transitive, dated) To scold violently, blow up at. (sports) To blow the whistle. (intransitive, cycling) To succumb to oxygen debt and lose the ability to maintain pace in a race. (transitive, slang, of a device, machine, system, or establishment) To overwhelm through unexpectedly high demand, activity, usage, traffic volume, etc. Synonyms: (of a device, machine, or system) break, deadlock, knock over, kill, overload, max out, take down, take out (of a hangout) To overwhelm (a place) with traffic or volume by revealing its existence to others. (of a cell phone, pager, or similar) To bombard with a large number of calls, texts, or notifications, to the point of rendering temporarily unusable or exasperating the recipient. (intransitive, slang, of a device, machine, system, or establishment) To be overwhelmed by unexpectedly high demand, usage, activity, traffic volume, etc. Synonyms: (of a device, machine, or system) break, deadlock, overload, max out (of a hangout) To be overwhelmed with traffic or volume. (of a cell phone, pager, or similar) To receive a large number of calls, texts, or notifications, to the point of being rendered temporarily unusable or exasperating the recipient. (slang, colloquial) To cause a malodorous smell by flatulation, defecation, etc. Synonym: bomb (intransitive, of a storm) To begin; to gather; to form. (intransitive, slang, dated) To use an intoxicating drug; to get high. ==== Usage notes ==== With almost any of the transitive senses except sense 1, the object may appear before or after the particle if the object is a noun or noun phrase: If the object is a pronoun, then the pronoun must come before the particle: (Putting up between the verb and the pronoun, as in "blow up it", converts the particle into a preposition, and thus changes the meaning.) ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Translations ==== === Anagrams === Publow, upblow