Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a pipe.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: blower. A pipe. How the swell funks his blower and lushes red tape; what a smoke the gentleman makes with his pipe, and drinks brandy.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford I 26: Paul here reappeared with the pipe; and the dame, having filled the tube, leaned forward, and lighted the Virginian weed from the blower of Mr. Dunnaker.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.

2. (US) a liar.

1866

H.L. Williams Gay Life in N.Y. 89: You’re a blower, I didn’t double team you.

3. a braggart, an empty speaker; also attrib. [blow v.¹ (1e)].

1841		Flash (NY) 26 Sept. n.p.: The pretended judges [...] are mere blowers.
1850		‘Ned Buntline’ G’hals of N.Y. 197: ‘You’re a blower – a shyster – a fou-fou!’ said Ralph, contemptuously.
1857		Bell’s Life in Victoria (Melbourne) 7 Feb. 4/1: You call me boaster and coward if I do not accept your challenge. I hope you will make it the cool hundred; if not, I consider you are the blower and coward.
1863		Criminal Life (NY) 19 Dec. n.p.: Broken-nosed Jemmie, alias the fighter of 6th avenue, is a blower and a cur .
c.1865		‘I Wish I’d a Shilling a Day!’ in Fred Shaw’s Champion Comic Melodist 38: You’re an old blower, you know, Jimmy Green.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 5 Oct. n.p.: Hear what this blower said the other day [...] that by political influence he had managed to stave off his trial.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 584: Blow, to, in the sense of boasting, is probably an Americanism [...] Hence also the noun blower, a braggart, with special reference to his success in imitating Baron Munchausen.
1878		J.H. Nicholson ‘Bunkum in Parvo’ in Opal Fever 112: Go ahead you big blower.
1894		Mirror of Life 15 Sept. 2/4: ‘[Y]oung Blower, [...] always boasting that he would yet do something to arouse the country; whatever became of him?’.
1890		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer III 149: A regular Sydney man thinks all Victorians are blowers and speculators.
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 186: For the German tramp, though a great talker and ‘blower,’ is a coward.
1910		B.L. Bowen ‘Word-List From Western New York’ in DN III:vi 437: blower, n. A braggart. ‘That fellow’s a great blower’.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 201: blower, a braggart.
1925		S. O’Casey Shadow of a Gunman Act II: That little blower, Tommy Owens; there he was tellin’ everybody that he knew where there was bombs.
1928		W. Winchell Your Broadway & Mine 3 Nov. [synd. col.] Houghton, the Repub [...] nominee, is the biggest blower of the campaign .

4. (US) an aggressive individual.

1867

Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 5 Oct. n.p.: As soon as he was ‘cop’d’ he ‘slugged’ the officer [...] But the big blower, afraid of the consequences, ‘squared’ it.

5. a telephone; esp. in phr. on the blower [following on f. the earlier ‘speaking tubes’ down which one had to blow to alert the other person; note bookmaker jargon blower, the betting shop public address system that broadcasts races, odds and results].

1926		E. Wallace More Educated Evans in Edgar Wallace Race Special (1932) 110: I heard it on the telephone. [...] They got that price from the blower round at the Arts Club .
1937		E. Raymond Marsh 457: Depends on how soon the other bogey gets on the blower and phones his station.
1945		‘Henry Green’ Loving (1978) 68: I’ll take up with those merchants what they’ve delivered short, what they owe me, on the blower.
1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 94: I asked the Katz pair if I could use their blower, and called up Suze’s W.2 apartment.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 55: ‘I’ve been on the blower this morning to about half a dozen’.
1964		B. Hesling Dinkumization or Depommification 94: The head cleaner got on the blower to a doctor.
1971		M. Novotny Kings Road 102: Why shouldn’t we say ‘hello’ on the blower?
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 224: I think I saw someone on the blower when I came in.
1982		L. Cody Bad Company 15: He couldn’t wait to get on the blower to Rentokil and get the place fumigated.
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 70: Shane has decided to visit his oldies. He gets on the blower and tells them he’s coming over Sundy.
1989		in G. Tremlett Little Legs 154: They come on the blower and say they won’t be screening it.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] The guy gets on the blower to the man on the front gate.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 58: And it all kicks off the day that Big Oscar got bingled on the blower by his Uncle Angus.
1999		J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] ‘Nicky you got to get on the blower right off. 999, police, ambulance, the lot’.
2000		Hip-Hop Connection Jan. 74: There are only 400 tickets, so make like U-Roy and get on the blower now.
2007		N. ‘Razor’ Smith Raiders 21: They would be on the blower to the Old Bill.
2011		567 Talk Radio on Cape Radio 2 Mar. [radio] Give us a shout on the blower.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 299: Sick Boy’s on the blower ta farking Scotland now, running up the bill.
2016		N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] VITAL AUSSIE VERNACULAR Telephone: 1. Al Capone 2. Dog and Bone 3. Blower.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 397: Ruders staggers off to answer the blower.

6. (US) a broken-down horse [NB Aus. bookmaker j. blower, a horse, initially a favourite, whose odds lengthen].

1876		‘Nimrod’ in Malet Annals of the Road 185: [W]ith rotten tackle, and bolting horses; jibbers, and millers [...] high blowers, and queer ones.
1952		in Lethbridge (Alberta) Herald 22 Mar. 14/4: A wind-broken horse is a roarer or a blower.

7. (Aus.) a marketing person, a sales representative.

1998

P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 65: They’re our blowers. They sell advertising space [in a magazine].

8. an annoying person.

1997–2001

Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 blower n 1. a person or object that erred. (‘You blower!’).