Dictionary

blow away en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see blow, away.
2. (transitive) To cause to go away by blowing, or by wind.
   • He blew away the dust which had collected on the book.
   • Perhaps as startling as the sheer toll was the devastation to some of the state’s well-known locales. Boardwalks along the beach in Seaside Heights, Belmar and other towns on the Jersey Shore were blown away. Amusement parks, arcades and restaurants all but vanished. Bridges to barrier islands buckled, preventing residents from even inspecting the damage to their property. 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, New York Times, retrieved 31 Oct 2012:
3. (intransitive) To disperse or to depart on currents of air.
   • I didn't have to rake. The leaves just blew away.
4. (figuratively, intransitive) To leave, depart.
   • She was like / Jazz on a summer's day / Music, high and sweet / Then she just blew away 1982, Steve Winwood, Will Jennings, “Valerie”:
5. (idiomatic, transitive) To kill (someone) by shooting them with a firearm.
   • The kid just blew the clerk away.
6. (broadly, idiomatic, transitive) To utterly destroy, especially with overwhelming force.
   • In the end, the question proved to be academic. When SCP-3125 arrived, whether it knew ω-0 was there or not, it took no special action against it, and had no need to. Most of ω-0's members' anchors were Foundationers, or Foundation-adjacent. With those people's minds blown away in the first strike, the dense web of mutual memory which had held the Task Force together since its formation tore loose. More than half of the Task Force was cast into the void and died; the final, real death they had evaded for years. 2019 August 26, qntm, “Unthreaded”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, page 162:
7. (US, idiomatic, transitive) To flabbergast; to impress greatly.
   • The critics were blown away by their latest album.
8. (transitive) To overwhelm.
   • Newcastle were completely blown away during the opening half of the match but worked up a head of steam after the interval that saw them score four goals in 19 minutes against a bruised and beleaguered Arsenal. 2011 February 5, Paul Fletcher, “Newcastle 4 - 4 Arsenal”, in BBC:
9. (transitive) To cause to go away; to get rid of.
   • And when skipper Richie McCaw hoisted the Webb Ellis Trophy high into the night, a quarter of a century of hurt was blown away in an explosion of fireworks and cheering. 2011 October 23, Tom Fordyce, “2011 Rugby World Cup final: New Zealand 8-7 France”, in BBC Sport:
10. (informal, transitive) To delete (data, files, etc.).

Forms

Deriveds

dry up and blow away

Translations (25)

ja 吹き飛ぶ (to cause to go away by blowing) · es dejar atónito (to impress greatly) · fi lentää tiehensä (to depart on currents of air) · sl navdušiti (to impress greatly) · fi lentää pois (to depart on currents of air) · ru порази́ть (to impress greatly) · es dejar pasmado (to impress greatly) · fi saada haltioihinsa (to impress greatly) · fr souffler (to cause to go away by blowing) · ru сража́ть напова́л (to impress greatly) · fr s'envoler (to depart on currents of air) · cmn 印象深刻 (to impress greatly) · it sorprendere (to impress greatly) · ru срази́ть напова́л (to impress greatly) · it spazzare via (to cause to go away by blowing) · ru срази́ть (to impress greatly) · sl odpihniti (to cause to go away by blowing) · ru сража́ть (to impress greatly) · fi puhaltaa pois (to cause to go away by blowing) · it colpire (to impress greatly) · ru поража́ть (to impress greatly) · fi puhaltaa (to cause to go away by blowing) · fr souffler (to impress greatly) · it spiazzare (to impress greatly) · sl razpihati (to cause to go away by blowing)