Meaning of blow In English

• 0 to move and make currents of air, or to be moved or make something move on a current of air:

  • The wind was blowing harder every minute.

  • The letter blew away and I had to run after it.

  • A gale-force wind had blown the fence down.

  • I blew the dust off the books.

  • I wish you wouldn't blow smoke in my face.

  • Ann blew a few notes on the trumpet.

  • He scored the winning goal just before the whistle blew.

  • a beautiful blown glass vase

• 1 to cause something to be destroyed by a bomb, technical failure, etc.:

  • His car had been blown to pieces.

  • The explosion blew the building sky-high.

• 2 to spend a large amount of money, especially on things that are not really necessary:

  • When I got paid I blew it all on a night out.

• 3 a hard hit with a hand or a weapon:

  • a sharp blow to the stomach

• 4 an unexpected event that has a damaging effect on someone or something:

  • Losing his job was a severe blow to his confidence.

  • Her death came as a terrible blow to her parents.

• 5 an act of blowing:

  • a blow on the trumpet

  • It took him three blows to get all the candles out.

  • Shall we go out for a blow?

• 6 →  cannabis

• 7 to make a current of air, or to move something or be moved with a current of air:

  • [ M ] The wind blew over a garbage can (= pushed it down on its side).

  • [ M ] We brought in the birthday cake and watched Lisa blow out the candles.

  • [ M ] We blew 12 balloons up for Charles’ party.

• 8 to destroy something in an explosion or to be destroyed in this way:

  • [ T ] The gas explosion blew a huge hole in the ground.

  • [ M ] The explosion from the gas leak blew all the windows out.

  • [ T ] I blew my first paycheck on a night out with my friends.

• 9 a hard hit with the hand or a weapon:

  • A sharp blow on the chest sent him spinning to the floor.

  • Her death at twenty was a terrible blow to her parents.

  • The brothers almost came to blows over sharing the car.

• 10 to spend a lot of money on something that is not important or effective:

  • Central Bank blew $900m of foreign-exchange reserves in the first two weeks of October alone.

• 11 to tell someone in authority about something harmful or illegal that someone is doing:

  • If two of the firm's employees hadn't blown the whistle, the scandal would never have become known.

• 12 to tell people the real and unpleasant facts about something that were previously not known:

  • The report blew the lid on the culture of secrecy surrounding the company's new range of fizzy-drink products.

• 13 to cause serious harm or damage to something:

  • Defeat would blow a hole in the club's finances.

• 14 something that causes serious problems or spoils your chances of success:

  • be a blow to sth The loss of 1000 jobs is another blow to the country's manufacturing sector.

  • come as a blow (to sb/sth) Unemployment figures will come as a blow to the Chancellor as he prepares next week's budget.

  • deal/deliver a blow (to sb/sth) Rising pollution levels threaten to deal a blow to the state's billion-dollar tourism industry.

  • a major/devastating/bitter blow We have suffered a major blow.

• 15 to make the bad effects of something seem to be not as bad as they could have been:

  • If things go wrong there are no mechanisms to soften the blow.