to blow up
804
2.7
- phrasal verb
- /bloʊ ʌp/
- Our job was to blow up these obstacles.
- plot to blow up
- attempt to blow up
- terrorists blow up
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Watch on YouTubeI mean, some fella damn blew up Arva decent camper.
- I mean, some fella damn blew up Arva decent camper.
- I said the wigs blew up in the explosion.
- So the Bronx look like the bombs blew up the whole Bronx.
- OK, the one that blew up, he was on that investigation.
- So you're attacking something much bigger than just blowing up a single weapon.
- Little kids getting blown up by white nationalists.
- And then something would blow up nearby that area kind of stuff.
- I had two laptops blow up in front of me.
- Four months after being deployed, a pipe bomb blew up his Humvee.
- So, you know, I'm driving down the road and IED blows up the convoy behind me.
- How much does it hurt when such things are destroyed, blown up, or other upon filming?
- If it had been blown up, it was at the top of a hill.
- And when that soldier gets shot and blown up, you're sweet because you're still back here.
Examples
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'Cause I blew up their car.
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Get them to send a bomber to blow up this building.
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-So you can blow up the bus line?
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If something important's about to blow up, I want to be there.
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He wants us to blow up the palace.
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Thirty minutes till Casanova blows up the city.
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They must have blown up the generator.
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Before I got myself blown up, Anthony Cortino was one of the most powerful men in Las Vegas.
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That's about how much mass blew up the entire city of Hiroshima.
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The terrorist group threatened to blow up a major building in the city.
Synonyms
591
2.8
To burst suddenly and violently, making a loud noise and flying pieces
176
1.4
Break open suddenly because of pressure inside
166
6.5
Cause something like a bomb or firework to explode suddenly and violently
52
5.8
To break something into pieces by hitting it hard
49
3.2
Make a building or wall fall down suddenly
35
7.7
To destroy something completely as if by a powerful weapon
27
4.7
To damage something very badly so it breaks into pieces
10
7.3
To attack a place by throwing a bomb that starts fires
8
5.1
To blow up something using a strong explosive used to break rock
Antonyms
How Violent
Surface Forms
Morphology
blow + up
The sense 'become suddenly very popular' is a metaphorical extension of the literal senses of 'blow' (sudden force/expansion/explosion) plus the intensifying particle 'up', so a learner who knows the constituents can likely infer a general idea of rapid increase or spread. However, the social-media nuance (viral sharing/popularity) and the specific usage as a phrasal verb are not fully predictable from the parts alone, so prior exposure helps for the full meaning.
Etymology
Blow up comes from setting off explosives to make things explode, like workers who use charges to blow up rocks to clear a road. That's why it means 'to explode' or make something burst violently.