/ · 1894 Brewer’s · B · 3. Blow (To)
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To blast as with gun-powder.
I will blow him up sky high. Give him a good scolding. A regular blowing up is a thorough jobation. The metaphor is from blasting by gunpowder.
⁂ But to blow up a bladder, etc., means to inflate it.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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