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.
2. A woman's breasts.—See Sport blubber, and for synonyms, Dairies.
Verb (familiar).—To cry; to weep—used contemptuously. Also shortened into blub.
1400. Test. Love, II. (1560), 283,1. Han women none other wrech . . . but bloblr and wepe till hem list stint. [m.]
1748. Smollett, Roderick Random, xliv. (1804), 202. He blubbered like a great school-boy who had been whipped.
1826. Scott, Woodstock, IV. Phœbe Mayflower blubbered heartily for company. [m.]
To sport blubber, phr. (common).—To show one's breasts, said of women, especially those with large and prominent bosoms.
Blubber and Guts, subs. (common).—Obesity;
a low term.
Blubber-Belly, subs. (common).—A
fat person.
