Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US campus) to tell off, to criticize.

1980

Eble Campus Sl. Fall 1: blow out – sharply criticize, often in anger.

2. (orig. US) to murder, to kill.

1865		W. Hilleary diary 25 Feb. in A Webfoot Volunteer (1965) 45: He did not obey the insulting command of ‘God damn you blow that light out or I’ll blow you out’.
1896		F.P. Dunne in Schaaf Mr Dooley’s Chicago (1977) 242: ’Tis a sign iv th’ nuttiness iv the campaign that a man should thry to blow himself out with hard times.
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 9: She didn’t tell him that it was she who had blown Goldie’s belly out with his own gilded gats.

3. to spend all one’s funds.

1834		‘Those London Mots’ in Bang-Up Songster 39: If you their love and charms would win, / Blow out their kite on rum or gin.
1901		DN II 136: Blow out, v. phr. tr. Like blow in, to spend freely.
1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Dec. 26/2: We didn’t have our fare home, and it was a long walk to town. We tried ‘lugging,’ but everyone we asked had either ‘blown out’ or had his bare fare only.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 29 May 3rd sect. 17/5: Things turned out as they mostly turn out for simple-minded, ambitious Australians visiting England for the first time, and C. and O. slumped, blew-out, and; generally went bung.
1922		Sun. Times (Perth) 15 Jan. 3/8: They had come from the bush, each with a ‘roll’ of about £40 [...] had overestimated their beer-carrying capacity [and] ‘gone stone mad and blew out in a couple of days’.
1924		Lawrence & Skinner Boy in Bush 281: I haven’t any cash. Not a stiver, Ma! Blown out!

4. to destroy, to spoil.

1907		Sun. Times (Perth) 14 July 4/8: We can get fours to one about our man, Jack McAuliffe; and Jack can blow him out in one round .
1968		S. Ross Hang-Up 95: By the time we got there, the tide’d change and the whole thing’d be blown out [HDAS].
1976		C. Durden No Bugles, No Drums 240: When we blow out them bastards up North.
1991		B. McCarthy Vice Cop 183: To resolve the issue of the cocaine possession [...] to blow out the arrest, McCarthy suggested that they concentrate on getting to a deputy inspector whom he already suspected of being on the take.

5. (orig. US) to reject, to break a promise, to neglect a rendezvous, to give up on etc.

1900		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 24 Oct. 1/1: It looks as if the A.J.C. will yet be yarded into the pen of straight-goers or blown out altogether.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: blow out. [...] To overthrow anothers [sic] contention.
1928		Phila. Eve. Bulletin 5 Oct. 40/3: Here are a few more terms and definitions from the ‘Racket’ vocabulary: [...] ‘blow out,’ to throw out of court.
1965		L. Dunne Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 181: You don’t want to blow her out and her loaded with dough. Now, do you?
1972		Zigzag Aug. n.p.: That tour was blown out and we were very brought down [KH].
1979		A. Payne ‘The Dessert Song’ Minder [TV script] 16: Well, someone was looking for me ... must have blown out.
1983		J. Sullivan ‘Wanted’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] I blew the Irishman out, I mean, I’ve heard bad things about him!
1990		R. Doyle Snapper 205: Jackie’s ex, the fella she’d blown out in the ILAC Centre.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 155: I could go anywhere. Blow it all out like I was a rebel.
2000		Guardian Rev. 19 Feb. 3: You simply did not blow out workers’ power for a disco or a date.
2018		G. Gilmore Class Act [ebook] ‘Pete’s so-called mates are always blowing him out’.

6. to collapse, to malfunction.

1949		R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 25: And me with me various veins that bad I can hardly lift a hoof without fear of them blowing out on me.
1970		‘Metropolitan Police Sl.’ in P. Laurie Scotland Yard (1972) 321: blow out, to: for a case, theory, accusation, to fall down.
1985		A. Payne ‘Minder on the Orient Express’ Minder [TV script] 80: Course, the second-hand car market has blown out since they flooded the streets.
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 149: The city attorney didn’t think a waiver’d hold up if my herniated disks really blew out later.

7. (orig. US) to astound, to amaze.

1971		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 80: Well, that just blows her out entirely!
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 11: Sometimes I’m blown out by what I can do.

8. (US campus) to shock, to embarrass.

1986		R.G. Barrett Real Thing 171: Jesus, Les [...] you’ve just blown the place out. No one up here’s ever seen anything like that.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 30: In college slang out is the most productive particle: [...] blow out ‘shock, embarrass’.