to blow off
189
5.6
- phrasal verb
- /bloʊ ɔf/
- And we had leaks, and the top blew off, and it rained inside the insulation.
- blow off the cover
- blow off the chamber cover
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Watch on YouTubeOK, when Harvey dents in the hospital with his face blown off, he's pissed, right?
- OK, when Harvey dents in the hospital with his face blown off, he's pissed, right?
- And I'm not sure what's scarier, having the door blow off your plane or losing your phone.
- But steps on AIED in Afghanistan literally blows his leg off.
- He meets a Syrian refugee family, one of the girls whose leg had been blown off in an air strike.
- He shot three people, killed two of them, blew off the third guy's arm and then went home with his gun.
- OK, Your shit gets blown off, your your best friend's fucking Dick gets blown off by sniper rifle, OK, because that's what they're doing.
- And that would affect me a lot more than seeing seeing something blown off like that.
- His hands blown off, not blown off, but I'm pretty bad.
- I don't know what's worth getting your fucking plums blown off or getting bombed.
Examples
-
I'd love to eat outside, but the wind would blow everything off the table.
Fiction book (2001) -
He meets a Syrian refugee family, one of the girls whose leg had been blown off in an air strike.
-
The panel blew off like it lit on fire.
-
The top of the mountain blows off under the enormous pressure of the steam.
Fiction book (1990) -
Eventually, they lead to a shock wave that blows off the part of the star well outside the homologous core.
Academic text (2005) -
And I'm not sure what's scarier, having the door blow off your plane or losing your phone.
-
In a recent incident, a spin chamber cover was blown off as the machine was being vented.
Academic text (1993) -
Hurricane Iniki hit right after he went away, and the roof was blown off this cottage.
Fiction book (1999) -
Or were they fishermen blown off course, the survivors of an extraordinary ordeal at sea?
Academic text (2005) -
The explosion was so powerful that it blew off the roof of the building.
Synonyms
235
3.5
To become loose and fall off
233
2.3
Separate from something by breaking or dropping
195
2.7
To take something off from where it is attached
132
3.8
To quickly remove something you have or that bothers you
98
3.0
To pull something off quickly until it rips
71
2.8
To make a piece come away from something by hitting or bending it
47
4.2
Force someone to leave a place
29
2.9
To fall from where it is fixed or held
18
3.5
To break a piece from something with a quick, sharp movement
9
4.0
To come apart from something it is connected to
7
3.5
To come off a larger thing, often because of force or damage
Antonyms
How Detached
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'to deliberately ignore or avoid' is not directly derivable from the literal meanings of 'blow' (move air/strike) + 'off' (away), so a learner who only knows the constituents would not reliably infer 'ignore'. However, because English phrasal verbs with 'off' often convey removal or dismissal, learners might plausibly guess a dismissive sense; this partial predictability makes the item only semi-transparent.
Etymology
Blow off comes from the image of a strong wind or an explosion that blows something off a surface, like a lid or roof tile being carried away. That's why it means 'to become detached and carried away by a strong force'.