Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US black, also blow) to shoot dead.

1969		C. Himes Blind Man with a Pistol (1971) 183: If’n you hit me again, white folks, I’ll blow you away.
1977		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 83: He wants this cat blowed before God can get the news.
1977		E. Bunker Animal Factory 182: You’re a lot less likely to get blown away by some asshole.
1989		Pileggi & Scorsese Goodfellas [film script] 110: One move, motherfucker, and I’ll blow you away.
1994		J. Wambaugh Finnegan’s Week 340: Bobbie’s blown away Jules Temple!
2003		Herald (Glasgow) 7 Apr. n.p.: In a frequently brutal world, no-one ever mentions the word ‘Kill’. The vogue term for termination by gunfire, bayonet or grenade is ‘slotting’. [...] Enemies can be ‘wasted’, ‘totalled’ or ‘blown away’, but never killed.

2. to defeat decisively.

1976		Cab Calloway Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 73: The Missourians ran us off the damned bandstand [...] We were blown away.
1986		D. Barker Life in Jazz 58: He [...] told of the great battle of music [and] that Lee Collins had won over Kid Rena. ‘Lee Collins has blown Kid Rena away!’.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 125: See the nigger run with them boots [...] Blew you away, Manny Man.

3. to make intoxicated with a drug or drink.

1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 217: You’re goin’ to get somethin’ that’ll blow you away.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 220: [I] drove to the apartment of an informant and got blown away on hash.

4. (orig. US teen) to impress, to bowl over, to astound.

1974		Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 1: blow me away – [...] That concert last night really blew me away.
1985		Eble Campus Sl. Oct.
1991		N. Krulik Hammer and Vanilla Ice 18: It was Hammer who housed them in every stadium! His amazing energy and fancy footwork blew the crowds away.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 420: A mean, this fuckin blew me away. A just coulden fuckin balieve it.
2006		D. Winslow Winter of Frankie Machine (2007) 94: When Jimmy the Kid finally leaves his uncle’s house, he is blown freaking away. Freaking away.
2018		W. Kramer Hard Stuff 278: [W]hen we hit the stage, I was blown away by the response.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 335: ‘[W]e were all blown away by the letter you wrote’.

5. (US black) to defeat verbally.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 94: Like a pootbutt come. Like you tryin’ to talk to a young lady. Messes you up, talkin’ trash. You righteously blow dat sucker away.

6. to kill.

1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 230: blow (one) away 1. Kill.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 164: Pinole had been blown away in the harshest way, and it was clear that Rojo intended to make someone pay for it.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 4: He got blown away.