Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to arrive unexpectedly and casually.

1883		Louisiana Democrat (Alexandria, LA) 14 Feb. 1/6: ‘Well, fur charity’s sake!’ yelled the youth from Yale. ‘When’d you blow in?’ He retorted with epigrammatic brilliancy, ‘Ah, go chase ourself around your feet’.
1895		F. Remington Pony Tracks 104: We were all very busy when William ‘blew in’ with a great sputtering, and said, ‘Is yous ready for dinner’.
1906		New Boys’ World 29 Dec. 95: Oh, corks! Jist look what’s blowed in th’ bloomin’ door!
1912		H.G. Van Campen ‘Life on Broadway’ in McClure’s Mag. Dec. 178/1: She got engaged to a Chicago packer’s son; but the old man blowed in, an’ Birdie grabbed him instead.
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 3 Jan. 11/5: At this stage [...] Constable Davies blew up [...] laid hold of Mick and lugged him off to limbo.
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 368: They blow over from Europe in those cattleships at a sawbuck a head.
1915		Truth (Wellington) 22 May 7: Freddie [...] blew along to St. Barnabas’ Church, Mt. Eden, in company with Ethel Harriet and was hitched up.
1915		Truth (Wellington) 22 May 7: Before he blew out to‘Gorzone’ he knew both Tommy and Betsy.
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 195: I was sittin’ here, readin’ me book, when de foist of de guys blew in.
1916		J. Lait ‘Charlie the Wolf’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 61: Just blew down to see the boys off.
1918		Aussie (France) 4 Apr. 2/2: This was the cause of an embarrassing misunderstanding in Piccadilly Circus by a ‘three-pip turn’ on Blighty leave, when an old lady blew up to him and said: ‘Excuse me, sir; can you tell me where I can get a No. 9?’ ‘Oh, yes,’ replied the three-pipper, absent-mindedly, ‘go on sick-parade in the morning.’.
1919		Aussie (France) 12 Mar. 5/2: The Corporal of the Guard [...] blew along and compelled a cessation of hostilities.
1919		H. Lawson ‘Enter Previous’ in Roderick (1972) 880: He blew in, or rarther drifted in, on an eddy of a red-dust storm from the plains.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 113: I didn’t expect him to blow along, or me an’ me push ’ud never ’a’ jungled up here.
1922		B. Hecht A Thousand and One Afternoons [ebook] ‘I got an idee he’d blow in tonight. He ain’t missed a Saturday night for months’.
1922		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 2 Dec. 18/2: Next night, we were all half asleep in the carriage when ‘Brum’ blew in.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 152: Denis Breen in skimpy frockcoat and blue canvas shoes shuffled out of Harrison’s, hugging two heavy tomes to his ribs. Blown in from the bay.
1932		Don Redmond ‘Doin’ What I Please’ 🎵 I blow in at these parties, / Just like a reckless breeze.
1936		(con. 1830s–60s) ‘Miles Franklin’ All That Swagger 134: She dined at the public table to inspect the squatters who blew in on the way from Riverina.
1937		Jennings & Madge May the Twelfth: Mass-Observation Day-Surveys 4.46: Knock at door – surprise visit – my cousin with 5 fellow-students... pretty hefty and all came in 2-seater car with dicky... ‘Just thought they would blow in.’.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Social Error’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 454: He figures she will be calling him on top the minute he blows in.
1939		K. Tennant Foveaux 220: Three quarters of an hour after the appointed time Honest John accidentally blew in, having remembered, that he was to meet a man about some timber.
1940		J. MacLaren-Ross ‘A Bit of a Smash in Madras’ in Memoirs of the Forties (1984) 279: In about five minutes, this bloke blew in.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 21: About this time Sid Barry blew in from New York.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 82: Where’d you blow in from, Snooker?
1960		Mad mag. Sept. 45: We knew Harry was heading for Doomsville right after he blew back into town from Frisco.
1971		Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 143: Jeeves blew in.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 30: He had blown into town with no ’ho.
1984		Benjamin & Pearl Limericks Down Under 76: To a musicale up at Ubobo / There blew in a battered old hobo.
1991		D. Jarman letter 2 June Smiling in Slow Motion (2000) 12: The rain that was meant to blow in blew away.
2000		G.V. Higgins At End of Day (2001) 134: Just blew into Buffalo from L.A.