blow up

phrasal verb
Word forms "blow up":
present tense I/you/we/they blow up he/she/it blows up present participle blowing up past tense blew up past participle blown up

1) [intransitive/transitive] if something blows up, or if someone blows something up, it explodes and is destroyed

Terrorists had threatened to blow up the embassy.

The boiler blew up, wrecking the whole house.

2) [transitive] to fill something with air or gas

We blew up lots of balloons and hung them around the room.

3) [intransitive] if a storm or strong wind blows up, it suddenly starts

The race had to be cancelled when the storm blew up.

4) [intransitive] if a serious argument or problem blows up, it begins suddenly

A political row has blown up over the minister's remarks.

5) [intransitive] to suddenly become angry and shout at someone

blow up at:

She just blew up at me.

6) [transitive] to make a photograph bigger

They had blown up the picture to make a huge poster of his face.

7) blow up in someone's face

informal if your plans blow up in your face, they do not happen as you expected and cause a lot of problems