blow up
verb
Meaning
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see blow, up.
- To explode or be destroyed by explosion.
- To cause (something or someone) to explode, or to destroy (something) or maim or kill (someone) by means of an explosion.
- To inflate or fill with air, either by literally blowing or by using a pump.
- To represent something as being more important or serious than it actually is; to inflate; to exaggerate.
- To enlarge or zoom in on.
- To fail disastrously.
- To increase without bound as a function argument or parameter approaches a certain value; to tend toward infinity; to approach infinity as a limit.
- To become popular very quickly.
- To suddenly get very angry, to lose one's temper.
- To become much more fat or rotund in a short space of time.
- To inflate, as with pride, self-conceit, etc.; to puff up.
Etymology / origin
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”).
- 𐌿𐍆𐌱𐌻𐌴𐍃𐌰𐌽(Gothic)→
- blása upp(is)→
- blåsa upp(Swedish)→
- aufblähen(German)→
- opblazen(Dutch)→
- opblaze(fy)→
- upblow(English)→
- upblowen(enm)→
- blow up(enm)→
- blow up (English)
- Relations: inh, der, cog, cog, cog, cog, cog, cog, cog
Related words
Sources
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