blown-up
Americanadjective
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(of a picture, photograph, image, etc.) enlarged.
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damaged or destroyed by demolition, explosion, etc..
blown-up bridges.
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(of a ball, balloon, etc.) inflated.
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overexpanded; unduly large.
a blown-up sense of importance.
Etymology
Origin of blown-up
First recorded in 1860–65
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Two miniatures, shown here in blown-up copies, may date from Henry and Anne’s courtship.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
"Things can get spoken about and blown-up pretty heavily. I feel for them, in a way. It can be tricky."
From BBC ● Dec. 25, 2025
There’s no blown-up spiders, even though my wife tries to bring that stuff home.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 27, 2023
Tupac Shakur, dressed in a suit, stared somberly from a blown-up photo that was erected on an easel like at a memorial service.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 7, 2023
She stuffed the blown-up photo of the strange man’s blurry face into it along with the phone-book page and ran downstairs again.
From "The London Eye Mystery" by Siobhan Dowd
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
