Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) a brawl, a noisy argument.

1825		J.K. Paulding John Bull in America 198: We had a blow out here last Sunday.
1838		J.C. Neal Charcoal Sketches (1865) 165: He has a prompt alacrity at a ‘blow-out’ and has been skyed in a ‘blow-up,’ two varieties of blow which frequently follow each other so closely as to be taken for cause and effect.
1840		T. Haliburton Letter-bag of the Great Western (1873) 33: ‘Falling out,’ however, would be much less dangerous than ‘falling in,’ and there is some little difference between a ‘blow up’ and a ‘blow out,’ as you and I happen to know to our cost.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. V 65: Then I’m mighty sorry – ha’n’t had no muss, ’cept a little blow out last night, for ever so long.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan , 1936 198: His father and mother were having a big blowout.
1936		Archie Seale Man About Harlem 29 Aug. [synd. col.] [of a boxing match] Why was John Henry Lewis [...] present at the Louis-Sharkey blowout igged.
1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 290: I went along with this rush, really needing some such thing now because of my blowout with Simon.
2023		S. Ayad When Kids Say They’re Trans 200: [S]ometimes an authentic blowout can have an unexpectedly positive impact.

2. (also blow) a binge of eating, drinking and debauchery, in weaker senses a party or dinner; also drug-taking; also fig. use.

1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 54: A blow out may likewise be found as savory and as high scented at Mother O’Shaughnessy’s in the back settlements of the Holy Land.
1821		R. Waln Hermit in Philadelphis (2 ser.) 24: ‘[B]een out to dine; — a little blue; — regular blow-out; — head-ache in the morning; — no harm to cogue a few’.
1833		‘Chummies’ Societys Feast’ in Fun Alive O! 54: D’ye hear, have a jolly blow out, / To make up for tomorrow and yesterday.
1837		‘Tear Duff Billy’ in Ri-tum Ti-tum Songster 18: Do as I have done, / Have a good blow out of mutton.
1837		True Colonist (Hobart, Tas.) 21 Apr. 585/3: ‘I can give a very capital blow out, and you have good cause to recollect the last claret you drank at my home’.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 11 Feb. 3/3: His Excellency entertained the [...] Mayor and Alderman to dinner [...] Sat wishes to know how the parties behaved themselves — and whether there was a good blow-out.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 76: And it’s a saxpence we’ve got, and a bloody good blow-out we’ll have uv it.
1849		Sam Sly 24 Mar. 4/1: [H]e had a prime supper last night of roast fowl and pickled pork, and was devilish sorry he could not eat the bones, as he liked a good blow out.
1851		C.L. Canfield Diary of a Forty-Niner (1906) 74: He said he did not feel like having a stag blowout.
1853		N.Y. Clipper 30 July 3/2: Who's the next to feed the press. Hurry up—no time to lose—a good puff for a free blow.
1855		‘Have You Seen the Emperor’ in Henderson Victorian Street Ballads 1937 147: Such a lot of fried liver and bacon, / And they had a jolly blow out.
1859		G.F. Atkinson Curry & Rice (3 edn) n.p.: Thus have we conspired with the good Mrs. Byle in the inauguration ‘blow-out’.
1866		J. Greenwood Night in a Workhouse 20: I’ve had some rum. Two glasses of it; and a blow out of puddin’ – regler Christmas plum puddin’.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 26 Oct. n.p.: She means to have a greater blow-out than when she coupled with Tommy Murphy.
1868		Melbourne Punch 12 Mar. 88/1: She alludes to meals as a ‘feed,’ and I think I once heard her speak of a dinner as a ‘blow-out,’ and a supper as a ‘tightener’.
1871		L.H. Bagg Four Years at Yale 43: Blow-out, a supper, spread, convivial entertainment, especially a society celebration.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 235: Once we had a rare blow-out at some swell’s place at Aigburth.
1880		in M. Lewis Mining Frontier (1967) 129: The old gent invited all the neighbors and killed the fatted calf, and gave the biggest blowout the camp had ever seed.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Jan. 9/1: [He] was mistaken by the landlord for the eccentric and masquerading Count Ridolfi […] The ‘vittles’ were too good for him to remedy the mistake – at all events before he got a substantial ‘blow-out.’.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) IX 1741: I’ll have a good blow out before the public’s closed.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 27 May 1/7: A ‘retired Australian’ recently gave a ‘big blow out’ [...] on the occasion of his eldest daughter’s birthday.
1896		F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories 149: ‘[H]e wants to take me acrost de lake dat ev’nin’ to annoder hotel w’ere dere was goin’ to be a blow-out’.
1897		Boy’s Own Paper 6 Nov. 90: I’ve never had such a blow-out of lobsters before in my life.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 252: One of these fresh-air blow-outs that always seem like an invitation for trouble.
1907		R. Service ‘New Year’s Eve’ in Songs of a Sourdough 43: It’s fine to have a blow-out in a fancy restaurant, / With terrapin and canvas-back and all the wine you want.
1913		‘Lord Ballyrot in Slangland’ in Tacoma Times (WA) 10 July 4/4: Every guy what gets into the blow-out has to doll up.
1918		A. Brazil Patriotic Schoolgirl 126: I meant to give you a regular blow-out, so far as the rationing order would allow us.
1918		‘Bartimeus’ Long Trick 48: ‘[I] stood him a blow-out at the tuck-shop’.
1919		H. Lawson ‘Enter Previous’ in Roderick (1972) 883: The gent bloke ketches the Dartmoor cove [...] an’ gives him a blow-out of bread and milk, an’ cold turkey, an’ a bottle o’ wine.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 122: Entertainments open house. Big blow out.
1926		K.S. Prichard Working Bullocks 210: What I always say ... there isn’t a hash house in the sou’-wst ... where you can get a blow out like you can here.
1935		D. Burley Chicago Defender 7 Dec. 17: The birthday blowout for John Sengstacke.
1937		E. Garnett Family from One End Street 167: How about a Regular Blow Out in a Posh Tea shop – does that appeal to any of you?
1945		A. Kober Parm Me 121: My goodness, a regella blowout she got here.
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 143: A Good Blow-out for Twopence.
1960		C. MacInnes Mr Love and Justice (1964) 42: Frankie wasn’t greedy about money and only felt the urgent need of it for explosive blow-outs when ashore in port.
1961		(con. WWII) X. Herbert Soldiers’ Women (1978) 315: Then on they went to town, to that gingerbread palace, the Paris Patisserie, and a cream-bun blow-out.
1980		Observer Mag. 24 Feb. 14: My life alternated between blow-outs and diets.
1981		J. Charles Black Billy Tea 32: I’ve been out here a year, / No races, girls or beer, / And I think it’s time I took a real good blow!
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 244: We decided it’d be best to first purge ourselves of all temptation with one last big blowout [...] both of us being longtime veterans of the pipe.
1999		Indep. Rev. 16 Aug. 3: A junk-food blow-out.

3. attrib. use of sense 2.

1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan , 1936 445: It might be a good idea to get all the boys together, and have a blowout party.
1970		A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 379: I’d bought a bottle of brandy for the occasion, and poured everyone a shot after the blow-out dinner.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 189: Sunday dinner was always something really special. Their one blow-out meal.
2018		W. Kramer Hard Stuff 162: [W]e had a blowout party at my apartment for Tim Shafe’s birthday. The drugs and booze flowed and flowed.

4. a party.

1824		W. Scott St Ronan’s Well (1833) 376: ‘She sent me a card for her blow-out,’ said Mowbray, ‘and so I am resolved to go.’.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford I 58: In a very short time, by his blows-out and his bachelorship [...] he became the very glass of fashion. [Ibid.] II 265: There’s some swell cove of a lord gives a blow-out to-day.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 23 Apr. n.p.: The landlord retires on the 1st of May. So he thought he would have a blow out.
1871		Hamilton Spectator (Vic.) 7 Jan. 1/7: If asked to an evening party, it is a ‘loose’, a ‘blowout’.
1872		‘Mark Twain’ Innocents at Home 327: Come right along, friends [...] This is a free blow-out.
1883		K.S. Bonner Dialect Tales 151: When they has a blow-out they kind o’ jines together, and makes the feathers fly.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 371: Why didn’t the tenantry have a blow-out, and fireworks, and all the rest of it.
1905		Albuquerque Eve. Citizen (NM) 20 Nov. 5/3: The big blowout at the Driscoll red-light joint [...] held last Saturday has caused a big stir.
1906		A. Adams ‘In the Hands of His Friends’ in Cattle Brands 🌐 Jack and his bride must have a blow-out right.
1913–14		Van Loan ‘Pearl Brooch’ in Taking the Count 252: Some fellow is sick or dead [...] and his lodge is giving a blow-out to get some coin.
1929		M. Levin Reporter 371: Blowouts and wild parties that table had served.
1931		D. Runyon ‘Brain Goes Home’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 225: A blow out of some kind is going on there.
1948		M. Horowitz ‘Sl. of the American Paratrooper’ in AS XXIII:3/4 319: blowout. Celebration.
1963		in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 139: I remember one blowout [...] wild, Doc, real wild.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 135: How would you like to [...] go to a fancy blowout with me?
1975		L. Rosten Dear ‘Herm’ 115: The Shlimhoff blow-out.
1982		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 1: blow out – big party.
1999		Guardian Guide 10–16 July 29: Booty-shaking blowout.

5. a good time, an exciting event.

1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 584: A blow-out is here, as in England, a great demonstration.
1897		E.W. Townsend Chimmie Fadden 83: De clerk had mistook her for one of dem forn queens what was going t’ Chicago, where dey is having a big blowout for Columbus.
1907		Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 10 Mar. 53/4: ‘This blowout to-night [...] will get in the Boston [...] and New York papers’.
1914		C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 119: When I was a kid it was my big blow-out of the year [...] like Christmas Day and all that piffle!
1949		Dan Burley ‘Dan Burley’s Clothesline’ 22 Oct. [synd. col.] Sunday went down strong with three major blowouts drawing the folks.
1989		G. Tate ‘GOP Throws a Mammy-Jammy’ in Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 99: The Republicans were putting on a rhythm-and-blues blowout for the inaugural.

6. (Aus./US) expenditure.

1992		G.P. Pelecanos Firing Offense 19: That bitch Fein called [...] ‘Said we’ve got to stop using the word sale in the head of our ads if we’re not lowering our everyday prices.’ ‘So I’ll call this next ad a blowout.’ ‘Perfect’.
1998		Bug (Aus.) 28 Jan. 🌐 It seems that Wigan went down to the local cash converters and pawned everything they owned [...] If the club’s prepared for that big a blowout, it would be selfish of Wendell not to get in for his chop while the money lasts.

7. an organized dance, held in a dancehall and frequented by lower-class young people.

1993

I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 67: In the slang of the day, these affairs were called rackets, blow outs, or hops.

8. (US prison) a riot.

1993

L. Rodríguez Always Running (1996) 178: After the ‘blowouts’ they get more Chicano teachers.