v. 1 breathe, puff, exhale; expel If the crystals turn green when you blow into the tube, it means that you've had too much to drink Blow some air into the balloon. 2 waft, puff, whistle, whine, blast An icy wind blew through the cracks in the windows 3 Colloq bungle, botch, make a mess of, muff, mismanage, Colloq screw up, mess up, fluff, bugger up, Taboo fuck up It was my last chance to win and I blew it 4 Colloq spend, lavish, squander, waste, throw out or away She blew hundreds on that dress and now she won't wear it 5 short-circuit, burn out All the fuses blew when I turned on the electric heater 6 blow hot and cold. vacillate, hesitate, dither, Colloq shilly-shally The sales manager has been blowing hot and cold over my proposal for a month now 7 blow out. a extinguish I blew out all the candles in one breath The match blew out in the wind. b explode, burst One of my tyres blew out on the way over here c short-circuit, burn out The lights blew out during the storm 8 blow up. a become furious or angry or enraged, flare up, lose one's temper, Slang blow one's top or US also stack, flip one's lid She really blew up when I said I was going to the pub b explode, burst, shatter, Colloq bust; detonate, dynamite, destroy, blast The bridge blew up with a roar Demolition experts will blow up the dam. c enlarge, inflate, embroider, magnify, expand, exaggerate, overstate The tabloid press has blown up the story out of all proportion d enlarge, magnify, amplify, expand, increase Can you blow up just this corner of the photograph? e inflate; distend, swell We were busy blowing up balloons for the party
n. 9 gale, storm, tempest, whirlwind, tornado, cyclone, hurricane, typhoon, north-easter, nor'easter We can expect a big blow tonight - winds of gale force, they say