blowup

[ bloh-uhp ]
See synonyms for blowup on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. an explosion.

  2. a violent argument, outburst of temper, or the like, especially one resulting in estrangement.

  1. Also blow-up . an enlargement of a photograph.

Origin of blowup

1
First recorded in 1800–10; noun use of verb phrase blow up

Words Nearby blowup

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use blowup in a sentence

  • Before the blowup on Earth, the galactics had made occasional landings to gather animals and seeds of food plants.

    The Ethical Way | Joseph Farrell
  • Actually we had the answer to protection during the Crazy Years before the blowup when everybody talked peace and built missiles.

    Noble Redman | Jesse Franklin Bone
  • Baker unrolled the first of his exhibits, a large photographic blowup.

    The Great Gray Plague | Raymond F. Jones
  • There could be a blowup that would throw Hub politics back into the kind of snarl they haven't been in for a hundred years.

    Legacy | James H Schmitz
  • They had a blowup last night, it seems, and she has stabbed him.

British Dictionary definitions for blow up

blow up

verb(adverb)
  1. to explode or cause to explode

  2. (tr) to increase the importance of (something): they blew the whole affair up

  1. (intr) to come into consideration: we lived well enough before this thing blew up

  2. (intr) to come into existence with sudden force: a storm had blown up

  3. informal to lose one's temper (with a person)

  4. (tr) informal to reprimand (someone)

  5. (tr) informal to enlarge the size or detail of (a photograph)

nounblow-up
  1. an explosion

  2. informal an enlarged photograph or part of a photograph

  1. informal a fit of temper or argument

  2. Also called: blowing up informal a reprimand

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with blowup

blowup

Explode or cause to explode. For example, The squadron was told to blow up the bridge, or Jim was afraid his experiment would blow up the lab. The term is sometimes amplified, as in blow up in one's face. [Late 1500s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.