blow

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To push air out through your mouth.

   She blew on the soup to cool it down.

2. 2
   verb

   To clear your nose by forcing air through it.

   He took out a tissue and blew his nose.

3. 3
   noun

   A hard hit with the hand or a weapon.

   He received a heavy blow to the head.

4. 4
   verb

   To stop working suddenly by breaking or bursting.

   The car tyre blew on the motorway.

5. 5
   verb

   To ruin a chance or reveal a secret carelessly.

   One careless word and you blew our cover.

Multiword verbs with blow

• blow off Phrasal verb A2

  to become detached because of an explosion or another strong force

• blow over Phrasal verb A2

  to gradually pass and stop causing difficulty or concern

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Blow, in the sense of wind moving, comes from a common Germanic root whose basic idea was “blow up” or “swell.” The noun blow meaning a strike, recorded in late Middle English, developed from the notion of a blast of wind.

From Middle English blowen, from Old English blāwan (“to blow, breathe, inflate, sound”), from Proto-West Germanic *blāan, from Proto-Germanic *blēaną (“to blow”) (compare German blähen), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to swell, blow up”) (compare Latin flō (“to blow”) and Old Armenian բեղուն (bełun, “fertile”)).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary