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blown-up

blown-up

6 3.6
Made larger than the original photo
  • adjective
  • /bloʊn ʌp/
translation icon : ampliado
  • The quality of the art goes down if something is blown up too much.
  • blown-up photo
  • blown-up photograph
  • blown-up image

Examples

  • The point is that last night I came home and found one of the pictures from that day blown up and stuck with masking tape to the bedroom door.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • Okay, I've blown up the image a little.

  • Look at that photograph out there all blown up.

  • On a monitor, we see a blown-up image of a fingerprint taken from Milo's keyboard.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • Very interesting, with tents, camp cots, and blown-up photos of life in the camps.

    Blog text (31)
  • The posters featured a blown-up reproduction of the Leader's front page headline: "'Gota Ordered Them to Be Shot' -- General Sarath Fonseka."

    Academic text (2011)
  • The art gallery displayed a blown-up version of the famous painting, allowing visitors to see the intricate details.

  • In her presentation, she included a blown-up image of the map to help the audience understand the geography better.

  • The magazine featured a blown-up photo of the celebrity on the cover, which caught everyone's attention.

Synonyms

enlarged
vsblown-up
1 3.1

Bigger than normal because it is swollen or has been made larger

applies to images increased from original size, not to physical swelling
magnified
vsblown-up
1 4.0

Made to look larger than normal, often by a lens or by attention

scales images up from their original size but usually to a milder degree

Antonyms

1.6

Made smaller in size, amount, or price

diminished
  • Specialized
4.4

Smaller in size, strength or importance

How Large

oversized
61 2.3
blown-up
6 3.6
normal
1.0
small
2 1.1

Surface Forms

blown-up positive

Morphology

blown-up = blow up (transparent) = blow + up

The adjective is the past-participle/adjectival form of the phrasal verb 'blow up' meaning 'enlarge', so the photographic sense is directly derived and easily inferred by learners who know 'blow up'.

Etymology

Blown-up comes from the phrase blow up, where blow gives the idea of 'make bigger', like when you blow air into a balloon. So a blown-up photo is a picture that has been made much larger.