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Glite Dictionary
💥 To explode 🌐 To go viral 🎈 To fill with air 😡 To get very angry 🦶 To swell 📢 To exaggerate 📝 To add details 🖼️ To enlarge
to blow up

to blow up

23 2.7
To fill something with air or gas until it gets larger
  • phrasal verb
  • /bloʊ ʌp/
translation icon : inflar
  • You've never blown a bubble or blown up a balloon?
  • blow up balloons

I think we have to blow up this balloon separately.

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Examples

  • Yeah, when you blow up a balloon, you have to blow hard.

  • I stuff my pocket and go to the porch where I blow up one of the balloons.

    Academic text (1991)

  • I think we have to blow up this balloon separately.

    Good Mythical Morning

  • Now blow that air against your cheeks as though you were blowing up a balloon.

    Lisa Eldridge

  • Yes, of course I've blown up a balloon.

    Blog text (23)

  • They're just pumping it and this giant balloon is being blown up and everybody's happy.

    The Rich Dad Channel

  • Though sometimes he would simply take a pile of long, thin balloons and blow them up, twist them into dogs, lions, elephants, and kangaroos, and send them sailing out into the crowd.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • When you blow up a balloon, make sure to tie it securely after filling it with air.

  • He was excited to blow up the beach balls for the party this weekend.

  • To prepare for the game, the coach told the team to blow up their exercise balls.

Synonyms

to inflate
vsto blow up
44 2.9

To fill something with air so it becomes larger and round

is the same meaning but expressed as two separate words
to fill up
vsto blow up
19 1.8

Make something have no empty space or cause a strong feeling in someone

is specific to adding air or gas to make it expand

Antonyms

to shrink
181 2.8

Become less in amount or value

to deflate
18 3.1

To let air out of something so it becomes smaller or loses its shape

How Inflated

to blow up
23 2.7
to inflate
44 2.9

Surface Forms

blow up infinitive
blowing up present participle
blows up third person singular
blew up past
blown up past participle

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 the simple act of filling something with air, like when you blow into a balloon and it gets bigger up. That's why it means 'to fill with air' or 'inflate'.