Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) to obtain.

1881

‘Bill Nye’ Bill Nye and Boomerang 91: You could also write religious articles [...] and blow in a good many scads.

2. (US) to squander, to waste, usu. of money.

1886		Lantern (New Orleans, LA) 20 Oct. 2: When Davis has a dollar he’s dead bent on blowing it all in.
1897		O. Wister Lin McLean 36: No sir! yu’ can blow in a thousand dollars like I did when in New York.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 65: A good many of ’em ’ud come [...] to blow in their wages.
1900		Sporting Times 16 June 1/5: [I] called at the club for five fivers I’d got to draw, blew it all in at Askit, got ’ome tired, ’alf-boozed an’ gasping hungry.
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 103: When I’d made a get-away after doin’ a job, I was never satisfied till I’d blown in ev’ry dollar.
1912		R.H. Thornton Amer. Gloss. I 75: Blow in. To waste one’s cash riotously.
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 143: I’ve had thousands in my time [...] Blew ’em in on booze and women.
1916		P. Kyne Cappy Ricks 166: You’ve been blowing your money in on Florry.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 64: I make eight thousand a year to his seven! But I don’t blow it all in and waste it and throw it around, the way he does! [Ibid.] 72: He blows in his father’s hard-earned money.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 170: The old man had also learned about his having blown in the tuition money.
1941		F. Sargeson ‘That Summer’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 161: I didn’t know whether to blow in a bob on a talkie or not.
1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 115: I took Clem out, and we blew in the money together.
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 31: Any way Dad won’t be home — he’s probably blowin’ in his dough down the pub.