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Glite Dictionary
to blow a bubble

to blow a bubble

1 1.0
To make a small round pocket of air in soapy water by puffing with your mouth
  • phrasal verb
  • /bloʊ ə ˈbʌbəl/
translation icon : soplar una burbuja
  • He took a deep breath and expertly blew a bubble from the soap mixture.

Examples

  • The children gathered around to watch as she blew a bubble that glimmered in the sunlight.

  • She blew a bubble, popped it.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Would you care to blow a bubble?

    Come Play (2020)

  • Yesterday, I saw her blow a bubble.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Sheila smiled and blew a bubble.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • He blew a bubble with his gum while I was singing.

    The Birdcage (1996)

  • I blew a bubble.

    Now You Know (2002)

  • She blows a bubble.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • She actually had a wad of gum in her mouth, and soon enough blew a bubble when she thought no one was looking; even those in the last row of the library could hear the sugary pop.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • Mooch shrugged, blew a bubble, and popped it loudly, sucking the gum back in.

    Blog text (21)

Synonyms

to bubble
vsto blow a bubble
32 1.0

To make small round pockets of air appear in a liquid

creates air pockets by forcing air through a thin soap film
to form bubbles
vsto blow a bubble
1 2.9

Make small round pockets of air inside or on a liquid

focuses on making a single air pocket using a thin soap film
to blow bubbles
vsto blow a bubble
1.8

To make small round balls of air by pushing air through gum in your mouth

creates them by forcing air through a thin soap film instead of through the mouth

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

blow + a + bubble

The meaning 'to form a bubble by blowing air' is directly compositional from 'blow' (to force air out) plus 'bubble' (a spherical pocket of gas), with the determiner 'a' not changing the literal sense. This is a concrete, literal action common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Blow a bubble comes from the simple picture of using your breath (blow) to push air through a thin soap film and make a round bubble. So the phrase means 'to form a bubble' by blowing air.