blow up

verb

blew up; blown up; blowing up; blows up

transitive verb

1

: to build up or tout to an unreasonable extent

advertisers blowing up their products

2

: to rend apart, shatter, or destroy by explosion

3

: to fill up with a gas (such as air)

blow up a balloon

4

: to make a photographic enlargement of

5

: to bring into existence by blowing of wind

it may blow up a storm

6

: to overwhelm (something, such as a phone) with calls, messages, alerts, etc.

… say your friend is blowing up your phone with … messages while you're supposed to be focusing on something else.

—Jake Peterson

intransitive verb

1

a

: explode

b

: to be disrupted or destroyed (as by explosion)

c

: to lose self-control

especially : to become violently angry

2

: to become or come into being by or as if by blowing of wind

3

a

: to become filled with a gas

b

: to become expanded to unreasonable proportions

c

: to gain a large amount of weight

In the ensuing two years Gibson blew up to more than 400 pounds as he ate an over-abundance of fast foods …

—Tim Crothers

4

: to suddenly become very successful, prevalent, or popular

Latin-tinged pop is blowing up because it fits the musical times …

—Christopher John Farley

Synonyms of blow up

• anger
• fly into a rage
• hit the roof
• flare (up)
• fly off the handle
• snarl
• hit the ceiling
• have a fit
• flip (out)
• blow a gasket
• snap
• blow one's top
• go ballistic
• blow one's stack
• glare

Examples of blow up in a Sentence

she blew up at everybody after a very long and very bad day

the building blew up because of a gas leak

Recent Examples on the Web

Along the southern front, Ukrainian drones began to blow up military convoys on the main road from Russia to Crimea. —Simon Shuster, The Atlantic, 6 June 2026

One of those blew up on its landing attempt while another was purposefully expended to get its payload to a higher orbital insertion. —Richard Tribou, The Orlando Sentinel, 4 June 2026

People look for small phrases and blow up this or that episode. —Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 4 June 2026

Arredondo jumped to the side, expecting the building to blow up, then called 9-1-1. —Maria Aguilar Prieto, CNN Money, 4 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1538, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Rhymes for blow up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup

Kids Definition

blowup

1 of 2 noun

blow·​up ˈblō-ˌəp 

1

: explosion sense 1

2

: an outburst of bad temper

3

: a photographic enlargement

blow up

2 of 2 verb

ˈblō-ˈəp

1

: to expand or become expanded to extraordinary size

2

: to fill up or become filled with a gas and especially air

blow up a balloon

3

: to make an enlargement of

blow up a photograph

4

a

: to destroy or become destroyed by explosion

b

: to become violently angry