Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a revelation, a discovery, esp. the embarrassment or confusion that follows such a revelation.

1757		Garrick Male-Coquette II ii: (daff.: sneaking out by Degrees.) lord racket: This is a fine blow-up, indeed! Ladies, your humble Servant—Hallo! Daffodil. (Exit lord racket).
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: blow-up. A Discovery, or the Confusion occasioned by One.
1786		Proc. Old Bailey 22 Feb. 396/1: Lyons said, let us go and put Bower's wife flash, it will be a good piece of fun, and make a blow up, and at the same time we may do his panne.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.:
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1818		W. Perry London Guide 60: Lately, a general blow-up has taken place of nearly all the do’s at the West end of the town.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 12: Blow-up [...] a disclosure of secrets and exposure of moral blemishes [...] The disclosure of secret machinations is a blow-up of the plot.
1828		J. Thomson An Uncle Too Many I i: Colonel Wildfire visit the ladies! – then there’ll be a blow up, and all’s ruined.
1837		Disraeli Venetia II 346: But how came this blow-up?
1896–9		H. Lawson ‘The Hero of Redclay’ in Roderick (1972) 299: There was a blow-up about it and the constable got transferred out back.
1907		D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 12 Oct. 12/2: ‘You are as thick in it as I am’ [...] ‘With a difference in the result of a blow-up [...] if the game was made known, they’d give you the rope!’.

2. (also blowing-up) a short-lived but emotional quarrel, a fit of temper.

1781		Belle’s Stratagem 45: Oh, if it had n’t been for the presence of Doricourt, what a blow-up I’d given her — But I’ll check my passion.
1796		T. Morton Way to Get Married in Inchbold (1808) XXV 12: Such a blow-up the other night! [...] Words got high and oaths flew about like roleaus.
1821		R. Waln Hermit in America on Visit to Phila. 2nd series 130: Auntee woke—caught me [...] —regular blow-up.
1824		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 19 Sept. 269/1: [W]hat a beautiful whack between the peepers he had given his friend Phelim O’Shaughnesy at a little bit of a blow up on the road.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 50: A gay, high-spirited, liberal-minded, set of fellows, who forget and forgive, in spite of all their little ‘blowings up’.
1837		‘Terence O’Shaughnessy’ in Bentley’s Misc. Jan. 34: On the evening of a desperate blow-up, we [...] agreed that the old people were fools.
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.
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 465: Had a blow-up with James Pigg about the merits of their masters.
1848		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms 36: There was a regular blow-up at Tammany hall, between the friends of Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Calhoun, which ended in a row, and broke up the meeting. — Newspapers of the day.
1850		Thackeray Pendennis II 301: Morgan had had ‘a devil of a blow hup with his guv’nor, and was going to retire from the business haltogether.’.
1865		H. Kingsley Hillyars and Burtons (1870) 201: As soon as she hears me come in she comes down and has a blow up at me.
1893		Illus. Police News 7 Oct. 3/5: ‘I’m so glad you let me scold first. I always feel better after I’ve had my blow’.
1916		H.L. Wilson Somewhere in Red Gap 127: It was a funny blow-up.
1936		W. Holtby South Riding (1988) 403: Having a grand blow-up with Sarah Burton. My word, she’s got a temper, hasn’t she?
1944		G. Fowler Good Night, Sweet Prince 130: The incendiary curse of Ashton Stevens [...] was regarded by Editor Michelson as a mere journalistic blow-up.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 178: The blowup he expected had not come.
1958		Murtagh & Harris Cast the First Stone 50: She’d give up wearing them [i.e. rings] after she and dad had their last blow-up.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 56: Why the big blow-up man [...] ?
1970		Gaddis & Long Panzram (2002) 125: The young guard had witnessed Panzram’s new blowup shortly after a letter [...] arrived at the jail.
1981		E. Bunker Little Boy Blue (1995) 36: First time I’ve seen such a blow-up for a kid.
1991		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 12: One day there was a blow-up at home. Dad walked out.
1995		M. Dibdin Dark Spectre (1996) 26: We had blow-ups like that all the time, and they didn’t faze us.
1998		R.G. Barrett Goodoo Goodoo 3: There was a huge blow-up betwen the Federal police, the NSW Police and everybody else involved.
2007		A.C. Shepard Woodward and Bernstein 13: Rosenfeld, a hard-charging, nervous man who smoked and was prone to blow-ups, blew up.
2013		T. Peacock More You Bet 48: Anotyher popular scene [...] involves a punter [...] ‘pulling a scene’ or enacting athreatening outbvurst [...] After such a ‘blow-up’ this so-called punter would typically ‘go on with it’ in an endeavour to break down or weaken the bagman.
2016		F. Stuart ‘Dispatches from the Rap Wars’ in chicagomag.com 🌐 Five days in, Chad and Junior had some sort of blowup, and Junior had to get out of town fast.

3. a financial collapse.

1821		Niles’ Register 15 Sept. 38/1: Bank of Missouri. We have the particulars of the blow up of this institution [DAE].
1825		Egan Life of an Actor 192: Those little snug parties proved my blow up.
1837		Marryat Diary in America 60: If any one will look back upon the commercial history of these last fifty years, he will perceive that the system of credit is always attended with a periodical blow-up; in England, perhaps once in twenty years; in America, once in from seven to ten.
1895		N.Y. Dramatic News 7 Dec. 18/1: The People’s theatre and everybody connected with it are still head-over-ears in trouble and the grand blow-up may be expected at any time [DAE].

4. (also blow, blowing-up) a scolding, a telling off; a negative critique (see cite 1882).

1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 22 May 133/1: Here the contest ended in a general blow up, every person being dissatisfied who had subscribed towards the purse.
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		R.H. Dana Two Years before the Mast (1992) 37: The captain was too wide-awake for him, and [...] gave him a grand blow-up in true nautical style.
c.1850		F.M. Whitcher Widow Bedott Papers (1883) 110: She gin me an awful blowin-up when we got hum.
1854		Thackeray Newcomes I 68: Mind the hice is here in time; or there’ll be a blow up with your governor.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 584: A blow-out is here, as in England, a great demonstration; a blow-up, a severe scolding.
1882		Taunton Courier 1 Mar. 13/1: [W]hether a trifle more variety in the dramatic criticisms of our own daily papers wouldn’t be an improvement. Their uniform ‘soft soaping’ is just a bit too monotonous [...] couldn't they do a ‘blow up’ say, once in a decade or so?
1901		‘Miles Franklin’ My Brilliant Career 145: It was such a good joke that I considered it worth two of the blowings up I was sure of getting from grannie for my conduct.
1910		B.L. Bowen ‘Word-List From Western New York’ in DN III:vi 437: blowing up, n. A severe scolding; a reprimand. ‘He had a grand blowing up’.
1912		E.F. Benson Mrs Ames (1984) 292: I gave her a blowing up, though not half of what she deserved.
1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 115: I saw from his stiffness that he was getting up an angry blow against me.

5. (US Und.) a rumour.

1929		C.G. Givens ‘Chatter of Guns’ in Sat. Eve. Post 13 Apr.; list extracted in AS VI:2 (1930) 131: blow-up, n. Tip, rumor.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 30/2: Blow-up, n. (Chiefly in the West) Information based upon rumor. ‘Flatten out (hide). Maybe it’s only a blow-up but I hear the finger is on us (we’ve been betrayed to the police).’.