Blow Great Guns, verbal phr. (popular).—To blow a hurricane; a violent
gale. Sometimes varied by to blow great guns and small arms.
1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], 23. ‘Curse me, if I
don’t think all the world means to cross the Thames this fine
night!’ observed Ben. ‘One’d think it rained fares as well as
blowed great guns. Why, there’s another party on the stair-head
inquiring arter scullers; and, by the mass! they appear in a
greater hurry than any of us.’
1854. H. Miller, Sch. and Schm. (1858), 14. It soon began to blow
great guns. [M.]
Blowhard, subs. (American).—A Western term of revilement, the precise
meaning of which it would be difficult to explain, since a newcomer
may, in one and the same breath, be called a blarsted Britisher, a
Coyote, and a blowhard. If all these are synonymous, then indeed the
Englishman in America is in a bad way. Cf., Blower, sense 2.
Blow Hot and Cold, verbal phr. (familiar).—To be treacherous;
inconsistent; vacillating. There is an allusion in the expression to
one of Æsop’s fables.
1577. W. Bullinger, Decades (1592), 176. One which out of one
mouth, doeth blowe both hoat and colde. [M.]
1756. The World, No. 185. This old fellow is of a most capricious,
unequal temper, and, like the satyr in the fable, blows hot and
cold in the same breath.
1856. Motley, Dutch Rep., V., v., 750. Being constantly ordered ‘to
blow hot and cold with the same breath.’
Blowing Up, subs. (colloquial).—A scolding; a severe reprimand; a
jobation.—See Blow up. The French equivalent is affres (fem. pl.),
i.e., ‘agonies.’
1839. Haliburton, Letter-Bag Gt. West, IV., 42. I would give him a
good blowing-up. [M.]
1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., No. xxv., p. 448. The
waves dashed over the pier, ducking the three or four venturesome
spirits who went on there. I was one—and received a good blowing up
from Mr. Brandon for my pains.
Blow in One’s Pipe, verbal phr. (American).—A transatlantic equivalent
of to blow or blew [one’s money]; i.e., to spend it.
Blow Me! Blow Me Up! Blow Me Tight! intj. phr. (popular).—Expressions
which, like blowed (q.v.), serve either as half-veiled oaths or as
merely big sounding but meaningless exclamations.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, I., 48. ‘Blow me up (says he) if
I have had a fellow with such rum toggys cross my company these
many a day.’
1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress.
Says Bill ‘there’s nothing like a Bull
And blow me tight’—Bill Gibbons ne’er
In all his days was known to swear,
Except light oaths, to grace his speeches,
Like ‘dash my wig’ or ‘burn my breeches,’
‘Blow me——’
1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 25. Here
blow me, I’ll do such a thing I never did before, I’ll say
thirty—yes, thirty shillings buys the lot, and I’ll have no more
nor take no less.
Blow One’s Bazoo, verbal phr. (American).—To boast; to swagger; to
gasconade. [From the Dutch bazu, an abbreviation of bazuin, a trumpet;
hence an equivalent of the English ‘to blow one’s own trumpet’.]
Blow Oneself Out, verb (common).—To eat heartily; to gorge oneself.—See
Blow out.
1837. Barham, I. L. (Babes in the Wood).
In the dog-days, don’t be so absurd
As to blow yourselves out with green-gages!
Blow Out, subs. (common).—A gluttonous feast, a heavy ‘feed,’ or
entertainment. Also called a Tuck in, which see for synonyms. Cf., Blow
oneself out.
1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, II., 264. ‘She sent me a card for
her blow-out,’ said Mowbray, ‘and so I am resolved to go.’
1847. Th. Hook, Man of Many Friends. The giving good feeds is, with
many of these worthies, the grand criterion by which the virtues
and talents of mankind are measured ... these persons call a
similar favour either a ‘spread’ or a ‘blow-out.’
1852. H. B. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. viii. ‘Get us hot water,
and sugar, and cigars, and plenty of the real stuff, and we’ll have
a blow-out.’
Verb (thieves’).—To steal. For synonyms, see prig.
Blowse, Blowsy, Blouze, Blowzy, subs. (old).—1. A beggar’s trull; a
wench.
2. A slatternly woman, especially one with dishevelled hair. Thought to
be of canting origin. In Grose’s time the term was humorously varied by
Blowsabella, in reference to the country girl in Gay’s pastoral poem,
‘The Shepherd’s Week,’ which depicts rural life in its character of
poverty and rudeness, rather than as clothed in the colours of romance.
We, fair, fine ladies, who park out our lives
From common sheep-paths, cannot help the crows,
From flying over; we’re as natural still
As Blousalinda.
1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. xvi., st. 37, p. 43 (E.D.S.). Whiles
Gillet, his blouse, is a milking thy cow.
1605. Chapman, All Fooles, Act iv., p. 68 (Plays, 1874).
Wed without my advice, my love, my knowledge,
Ay, and a beggar, too, a trull, a blowse!
1638. Ford, Lady’s Trial, III., i. Wench is your trull, your
blouze, your dowdie.
1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. VII., p. 20.
So the old Babylonian Blouze,
And her demure fanatick Spouse.
1851. Thackeray, English Humorists, p. 167. Are not the Rosalindas
of Britain as charming as the Blousalindas of the Hague?
Blow the Gab or Gaff, verbal phr. (common).—To reveal, or ‘let out’ a
secret; to peach. Cf., Gaff, Gag and Gab. For synonyms, see Peach.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. To blow the gab
(cant), to confess, or impeach a confederate.
1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. xliii. ‘One of the French
officers, after he was taken prisoner, axed me how we had managed
to get the gun up there; but I wasn’t going to blow the gaff.’
1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 122. The prisoner,
burning for revenge, quietly bides his time till the chief warder
comes round, then asks to speak to him, and ‘blows the gaff.’
Blow the Grampuse, verbal phr. (nautical).—To throw cold water on a man
who has fallen asleep when on duty.
Blow the Groundsels, verbal phr. (old).—To have sexual commerce on the
ground.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. To blow the
groundsils (cant), to lie with a woman on the floor.
Blow Together, verbal phr. (tailors’).—To make garments in a slovenly
manner.
Blow Up, subs. (colloquial).—A scolding; a ‘wigging’; a railing.
1809. Sir W Gell, in C. K. Sharpe’s Correspondence (1883), I., 355.
There won’t be any quarrel, so you need not fear. The only chance
is Keppel making a blow up when she abuses me.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lxviii. Morgan had had ‘a devil of
a blow hup with his own guv’nor, and was going to retire from the
business haltogether.’
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. vii. ‘Mind the hice is here in time;
or they’ll be a blow up with your governor.’
Verb (colloquial).—To scold.
1809. Sir W. Gell, in C. K. Sharpe’s Correspondence (1888), I.,
355. I have heard her daughter blow up Lady Salisbury when she had
quarrelled with Lady Sefton.
1883. G. A. S[ala], in Illust. L. News, June 16, p. 599, col. 1.
That the ’aughty nobleman should blow up the clerk for presuming to
take a seat in his presence.
To blow up sky-high, phr. (American).—The American, fond of doing
everything with unusual energy, likes to blow up sky-high, an addition
which lends colour to the supposition that probably the phrase is
originally a nautical one, and really borrowed from the blowing up of a
vessel, much as the meaning of the words must have evaporated before it
reached the present stage.
Blow upon (old).—To betray; to tell tales of; to discredit; to
defame.—See Blow, verb, sense 2. Used also with indirect passive.
1402. [? T. Occleve], Letter of Cupid, in Arber’s Garner, vol. IV.,
p. 61.
Thus they despisèd be, on every side,
Dislanderèd and blown upon full wide.
1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. X., ch. ii. ‘That the reputation of
her house, which was never blown upon before, was utterly
destroyed.’
1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, II., p. 239. It fortunately
occurred to me, that if I gave it him myself, I could be of no
farther use. I should have been blown upon immediately.
1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. III., ch. xii. ‘The condition
of our affairs is desperate, and may be blown upon at any moment.’
1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. i., p. 4. Both desisted from
their own recriminations as to ‘rounding’ and ‘blowing’ on each
other.
1882. Jas. Payn, in Glow Worm Tales, p. 301. ‘An Improvement on a
System.’ If Mr. Prince had caught me before his establishment had
got ‘blown upon’ in the public prints, he might have persuaded me
to become an inmate of the Agapemone. I hope I should not have
approved of the manner of life in vogue at that institution, but I
make no doubt that I should have fallen in with it without much
resistance.
Blub.—See Blubber, verb.
Blubber, subs. (common).—1. The mouth. From the figurative use of the
word, especially of anything swollen or protruding, as of the lips. For
synonyms, see Potato-trap.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. I have stopped the
cull’s blubber, I have stopped the fellow’s mouth.