blow up

British  

verb

1. to explode or cause to explode

2. (tr) to increase the importance of (something)

   they blew the whole affair up

3. (intr) to come into consideration

   we lived well enough before this thing blew up

4. (intr) to come into existence with sudden force

   a storm had blown up

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

6. informal (tr) to reprimand (someone)

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

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noun

1. an explosion

2. informal an enlarged photograph or part of a photograph

3. informal a fit of temper or argument

4. Also called: blowing up.  informal a reprimand

blow up Idioms  

1. 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]

2. Lose one's temper, as in I'm sorry I blew up at you . Mark Twain used this metaphor for an actual explosion in one of his letters (1871): “Redpath tells me to blow up. Here goes!” [ Colloquial ; second half of 1800s]

3. Inflate, fill with air, as in If you don't blow up those tires you're sure to have a flat . [Early 1400s]

4. Enlarge, especially a photograph, as in If we blow up this picture, you'll be able to make out the expressions on their faces . [c. 1930]

5. Exaggerate the importance of something or someone, as in Tom has a tendency to blow up his own role in the affair . This term applies the “inflate” of def. 3 to importance. It was used in this sense in England from the early 1500s to the 1700s, but then became obsolete there although it remains current in America.

6. Collapse, fail, as in Graduate-student marriages often blow up soon after the couple earn their degrees . [ Slang ; mid-1800s]

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Example Sentences

"All the quantum perturbations that should blow up the value of the cosmological constant are rendered inert by this topology, which keeps the constant's value stable."

From Science Daily • Jun. 19, 2026

“I was told that a number of plaintiffs would seek to blow up the settlement,” Baum said, adding that further delays would create a “very significant economic crisis potential.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 15, 2026

At least they didn’t blow up on the launchpad the way a New South Korean fund offering an enhanced bet on chip maker SK Hynix did this week.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 12, 2026

That intervention sent a clear message that the justices were deeply skeptical of the appeals court’s ruling and unwilling to let it blow up the regulator.

From Slate • Jun. 12, 2026

“It should be fine. It’s only threatened to blow up once.”

From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan

Related Words

• blast
• bomb
• burst
• detonate
• dynamite
• erupt
• go off
• rupture
• shatter