Dictionary

blowoff en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

Deverbal from blow off.

Meanings

1. Something that is blown off.
   • Often the blowoff from numerous thunderstorms combine to form an extensive cirrostratus shield as seen at D in Figure 39 1986, Peter S. Parke, Satellite Imagery Interpretation for Forecastors- Volume 55, page 7:
   • It is evident that if the outlet pipes were only of the same total area as the blowoff from the boiler the pressure in the tank would very soon equal that in the boiler . 1910 July 12, Wilbur Arnold, “Blowoff Tank”, in Power and the Engineer, volume 32, page 1265:
   • However, the cirrus blowoff from the top of the cumulonimbus clouds indicates an easterly component, or less of a westerly component, in the upper troposphere. 1974, Skylab 4 Visual Observations Project Report, pages 12-4:
2. The explosive separation of part of a rocket etc in order to prevent its destruction and allow for retrieval
3. The act of blowing off (steam, water, atmosphere, etc.)
   • Between fuel concentrations A and B, the blowout of a lifted flame occurs at a lower velocity than the flame blowoff from the port. 2024, Allan T. Kirkpatrick, Kenneth K. Kuo, Principles of Combustion, page 289:
   • Some of you will argue this point because you've used it for everything, everything but the only purpose for bottom blowoff. 2005, Kenneth E. Heselton, Boiler Operator's Handbook:
   • For the materials mixed at 0.3 and 0.9 ks , no toner can be seen after blowoff at the highest pressure . 2012, K.L. Mittal, Particles on Surfaces 1: Detection, Adhesion, and Removal, page 173:
   • There may have been blowoff in early Titan's history, but on an icy body there are plenty of volatile resrvoirs available to restock an atmosphere. 2010, Raymond T. Pierrehumbert, Principles of Planetary Climate, page 578:
   • Some investigators claim that snow blowoff from cropland in prairie areas not protected by shelterbelts may be as much as 50 to 75 percent (Gorshenin et al. 1934), and, as a consequence, protected fields get 2½ to 3 times as much moisture from snow as unprotected land. 1962, John Milton Webber, Fiber Qualities and Culture of Phormium in California, page 4:
   • All blowoffs were effected by slowly decreasing the burner pressure at intervals of air temperature, airflow, and fuel flow. 1959, Robert J. Bacigalupi, Erwin A. Lezberg, Blowoff of Propane and Hydrogen Diffusion Flames at High Mach Number, Ramjet Conditions, page 4:
4. A line or pipe for draining a siphon (for cleaning, inspection, etc.)
   • The level of fluid in the main trap will have moved down the same distance the level in the blowoff trap has moved . 1945, Division of Agriculture, University of Arkansas, Report Series - Agricultural Experiment Station, page 5:
   • The blowoff line runs from the lowest water drum, or mud drum, as it is commonly known, to the sewer , river or circulating water discharge . 1918, The Au Sable News - Volumes 4-5, page 22:
   • Blowoff structures are provided at or near the low point of relatively long inverted siphons to permit draining the pipe for inspection and maintenance or wintertime shutdown. 1974, United States. Bureau of Reclamation, Design of Small Canal Structures, page 375:
5. The removal of excess foam and carbon dioxide from the fermentation vessel during the active fermentation stage.
   • I performed several experiments to determine the effect of the blowoff method of fermentation on bitterness, protein, and higher alcohols. 1997, Al Korzonas, Homebrewing, page 347:
   • I recommend the blowoff method of fermentation---non-blowoff versions of this beer have tasted harsh, astringent and too bitter. 2022, Karllo Mello, Brewer: Prepare Like an Expert:
   • But in retrospective of his photography, there is a shot of a lone carboy perched on a table, lit by a bare bulb with a. blowoff hose curling around in a graceful arc to a round flask with settled yeast. 2019, Denny Conn, Drew Beechum, Simple Homebrewing: Great Beer, Less Work, More Fun, page 21:
   • This blowoff method is wasteful because you lose a couple of quarts of beer, but it is the best way to reconcile the sanitation advantages of a closed fermenter with the behavior of top cropping yeast strains. 2012, Dave Miller, Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide:
6. A period of rapid and usually unsustainable increase (or, sometimes, decrease) in market prices.
   • Often this throwing-in-the-towel mentality is pure crowd following and results in entry at the blowoff phase of the trend . 2005, Richard L. Weissman, Mechanical Trading Systems, page 68:
   • A crash in china would reverberate across Asia, and a blowoff that resulted in political instability would have dire consequences. 2014, Barton Biggs, Biggs on Finance, Economics, and the Stock Market, page 221:
   • If the current trend doesn't resolve itself in a rounding top/bottom and costs begin to accelerate at a much steeper angle than the sustainable 45-degree rate, the market will more than likely end in a blowoff. 2022, Nathan Bell, Options trading strategies:
   • All the questions refer to trades made in the blowoff phase of the market , whether stated or not. 2015, Robert J. Seifert, Profiting from Weekly Options:
7. A curt or uninterested dismissal; a failure to respond adequately.
   • I sent Ronnie a quick text this morning, but she only responded with a quick, "Hi, I'm good. Busy day. TTYL." And that was it. To be truthful, it felt like a bit of a blowoff. 2024, Jessa York, Best Unlaid Plans:
   • It's also a minute that person is spending with someone who doesn't truly want to be spending it with him. Thus, the right thing to do is to learn the art of the blowoff. 2016, Dave Kerpen, The Art of People:
   • People have no trouble detecting, and resenting, a blowoff. 2012, Virgil Scudder, Ken Scudder, World Class Communication, page 26:
   • He tried to get it fixed but they gave him the blowoff.
   • In walking toward this makeshift auction house myself, I am considering though, if it's just step one of a genial blowoff, though councluding it didn't feel like a blowoff. 2020, Jason McGathey, Days Without End:
8. (qualifier:crime) The stage in a con game in which one gets rid of the mark after taking his or her money.
   • At the last moment something goes wrong, the money is lost (taking off the touch), and a physical altercation or other looming drama hurries the sucker out the door – and preferably out of town (the blowoff). 2023, Alan Prendergast, Gangbuster, page 43:
   • White grifters call it the blowoff. 1969, Iceberg Slim (,Robert Beck), Trick Baby, page 123:
   • Then comes the blowoff, by which they get rid of him . 1956, Chic Conwell, Edwin Hardin Sutherland, The Professional Thief, page 65:
9. The exit of a crowd from a circus or carnival act.
   • Margarita is going to hire you to sell her toys in the ring, so she can run the toy stand out in the midway and catch the blowoff crowd when people leave the big top. 2016, Elizabeth Carter Wellington, Circus Girl:
   • The noise of the crowd swelled in the blowoff as they were herded down the midway and out of the circus lot , then evaporated , leaving the twilight air to be filled instead with cicada chittering. 2023, Ellen Datlow, Nightmare Carnival:
   • The most dramatic blowoff I have witnessed was at the single-O side-show featuring Atasha the Gorilla Girl, which actually frightened patrons out of the show. 2005, Joe Nickell, Secrets of the Sideshows, page 77:
10. An extra attraction offered to the audience of a sideshow or carnival act, usually hidden behind a curtain and requiring an additional payment; aftershow.
    • Not in the girlie shows, stripping naked for the yokenecks who give up a couple of bucks for the blowoff. The aftershow. 1969, Henry W. Clune, O'Shaughnessy's Cafe, page 216:
    • In some minor shows the blowoff was promoted as "for adult males only," giving the impression that the customer was buying a peek at nudity–which in some instances he was. 2014, Robert Bogdan, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit, page 104:
    • Some showmen reserve their best acts or exhibits for the blowoff. 2005, Joe Nickell, Secrets of the Sideshows, page 77:
    • Since the inside talker was also usually the magician, he'd do his brief magic act for the ladies and children while the gents paid a little extra to go behind the curtain to see the blowoff. 2012, Tony Gangi, Carny Sideshows:: Weird Wonders of The Midway, page 203:
11. A finale.
    • A good story or buildup is what makes the punch line (or blowoff, in the case of a skit) funny. 2015, Bruce Fife, Tony Blanco, Steve Kissell, Creative Clowning, page 54:
    • Patterson, who had just come off the Alley Fight blowoff to his feud with Sarge, was looking for something new to do, and had decided that a feud with Mosca would be his next adventure. 2015, Bob Backlund, Robert H. Miller, Backlund:
    • All the way, we played cards, smoked, and laughed over how Gloria and this other skater got in this fight for every night's blowoff . 2005, D. Bordner, Roller Babes, page 83:
12. A fight that marks the culmination of a long period of antagonism.
    • "I guess it was a blowoff of one of those things that happens over time," Chief explained at the time. "You might say we settled an old score." 2010, Mark Bechtel, He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back:
    • The blowoff came when Johnny went to bat again in the sixth frame . 1950, Caary Paul Jackson, Rookie First Baseman, page 157:
    • The unwilling storm center of last year's Army-McCarthy blowoff, Civilian Schine planned to take up his chores ( for which he drew handsome salaries throughout his Army days) as president and general manager of his father's nation-spanning chain of five hotels (e.g. Forida's Boca Raton, Los Angeles' Ambassador) and as boss of a string of more than 150 movie houses. 1955, “People”, in Time, volume 66, page 30:
13. (colloquial) An outburst of temper or excitement.
    • Besides, I had come down for rest and the kind of blowoff a man needs after five months of being snowed in and working his tail off. 1949, Richard Summers, Vigilante, page 7:
    • The town became what is called a "blowoff" town , where the soldiers would go to gamble, dance, drink, and carouse with women. 1987, Philip Varney, New Mexico's Best Ghost Towns:
    • But they used to get pushed around all the time and I guess that's what was behind the blowoff in the street riots here . 2006, Kevin Allen Leonard, The Battle for Los Angeles: Racial Ideology and World War II, page 173:
    • Can you tell if someone's telling a lie if they do a blowoff when they're saying it ? 2023, Philomena Cunk, Cunk on Everything: The Encyclopedia Philomena:
    • He either talked along about home or else he paced up and down his cage silently and you could tell there was a big blowoff coming . 1958, George Garrett, King of the Mountain, page 178:
14. An act of oral sex.
    • Through Oregon and Washington we were cut down quite a bit; we couldn't give the blowoff and we couldn't strip all the way and things like that. 1972, Bruce Jackson, In the Life: Versions of the Criminal Experience, page 390:
    • It was a general saying that lumberjacks talked of their town experiences in the campa and that they did their expert logging in the saloons and in the houses of prostitution. Blowoffs before the ladies . 1959, Wilfred Nevue, Puget Sound Lumberjack, page 128:
    • Was she actually getting a blowoff after phone sex? 2021, Dena Blake, Love By Proxy:
15. (UK, slang) A fart.
16. A class that does not require much effort to pass; a course where one does not have to work.
    • And finally, if you think this is going to be an easy, blowoff class, you're sorely mistaken. 2007, Ann Roberts, Brilliant:
    • And, for sixth period, the last one, he had General Business. Probably and hopefully a blowoff. 2014, Gary Newsom, People Like That:
    • This initial interaction communicates, yes, that the course is not a blowoff class. 2024, Russell T. McCutcheon, Teaching in the Study of Religion and Beyond:

Forms

Coordinates

runoff · flowoff

Relateds

blow off steam

Translations (2)

es salimiento ((of a tire)) · pl wydostanie się nadmiaru powietrza ((of a tire))