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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

1 3.4
To make a photo or picture larger so people can see it
  • phrasal verb
  • /bloʊ ʌp/
translation icon : ampliar
  • I took the image and I blew it up.
  • blow up a photo

Examples

  • Mitch, get this in the computer and blow it up.

    The Watcher (2000)

  • And again, I do wish we could blow up these photos so we could look a little bit closer.

  • Can you isolate it and blow it up on this thing?

    Fiction book (2000)

  • I have architectural plans from their website, and I have made copies and blown them up of each of the four floors.

  • With a projector, you are blowing up the image four times the size of the TV.

    Blog text (5)

  • Let me try re-digitizing this footage at a higher resolution so I can blow it up.

    Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)

  • Can you blow up this picture so we can see the details better?

  • I asked the printer to blow up the images for our presentation.

  • She decided to blow up the family photo to make it a beautiful canvas for the living room.

Synonyms

to enlarge
vsto blow up
70 3.0

To make something bigger in size or amount

focuses especially on making photographs or images bigger
to magnify
vsto blow up
46 3.5

To make something look larger using a lens or device

refers to changing the image size itself rather than appearance
to resize
vsto blow up
  • Specialized
11 3.2

To change the size of something, for example a picture or window, to make it fit better

applies especially to photographs when the goal is larger size
to scale up
vsto blow up
9 3.9

Increase the size or amount of something so it still works well

is used for making images larger without focusing on proportions
to embiggen
vsto blow up
  • Slang
1 9.9

To make something bigger, often in a joking way

is a neutral term used for making photographs or images larger
to upscale
vsto blow up
  • Specialized
4.4

Make digital images bigger or clearer

aims specifically to make images larger rather than improving quality

Antonyms

to reduce
∞ 1.6

To make something smaller in amount, size, or number

How Enlarged

to upscale
  • Specialized
4.4
to blow up
1 3.4
to magnify
46 3.5
to zoom in
  • Texting
33 3.7

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 for photos comes from making a small picture much larger, as if you blow the image up on a machine so people can see every detail. That's why it means 'to enlarge' a photo or image.