Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) to stop, to cease.

1845

J.J. Hooper Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs (1851) 48: When we blowed off, I judge he had the wust of it.

2. (US) of events, to develop, to happen.

1912

R. Beach Net 156: He’s my best dago detective, and I sent him here to-night in case anything blew off. The woman is his wife.

3. (US, to get rid of, esp. US Und.) in the concluding stages of a con-game.

1940		D. Maurer Big Con 4: Getting him out of the way as quietly as possible. (Blowing him off.).
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 301: He [...] signed some kind of paper, blowing them off.
1956		J. Thompson ‘The Cellini Chalice’ in Fireworks (1988) 94: He’d been conned [...] Duke had taken him, and blown him off.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 96: The bitch I had blew me off in the sub-station.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 11: A morgue slab if a cut-throat mark woke up before he was ‘blowed off’.
2001		N. Green Shooting Dr. Jack (2002) 57: This guy isn’t gonna go away, Tuco thought. He’s not gonna let me blow him off.
2004		T. Winton ‘Big World’ in Turning (2005) 14: In a week Biggie and Meg will blow me off.
2005		E. Weiner Big Boat to Bye-Bye 45: ‘He can blow you off just as easily’.
2007		R. Milward Apples (2023) 143: I blew him off.

4. (US Und.) to interrupt criminals during a crime.

1950

Goldin et al. DAUL 30/1: Blow off, v. [...] 2. To pursue; to interrupt criminals in the commission of a crime. ‘The pete (safe) was ready to go (open) when we got blowed off and had to take a powder (flee).’.

5. (also blow, blow away) to terminate a relationship, to jilt someone by not turning up; also in non-sexual contexts.

1941		‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 27 Sept. 9/6: Have you ever been ‘blowed’ with your own money? [...] I ask you, Joe, have you ever been blowed with your own dough. Oh, now, you ain’t so ‘sho?’.
1941		‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 20 Dec. 9/6: Folks say that V. Chandler has blown poor Lois away.
1985		Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 2: blow off – drop or dump [...] I can’t believe Roger would blow me off like he did.
1989		P. Munro Sl. U. 39: Dude, don’t blow Julie off!
1993		A. Rodriguez Spidertown (1994) 2: He had been with scores of girls, had fucked them and blown them off, and none of it mattered.
1993		R. Shell Iced 70: This girl [...] who had blown me off when I had nothing.
2002		D.H. Sterry Chicken (2003) 205: You blow me off, then show up the next night, and you expect me to have sex with you?
2007		L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] Maybe she was doing this to punish me for blowing her off the other day.
2012		R. Milward Kimberly’s Capital Punishment (2023) 130: I didn’t want to be nasty and blow any of them off.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Sunset’ in Broken 177: He’d get high and blow off tournaments, personal appearances, photo shoots.

6. (US, also blow it off) to ignore, to make little of.

1969		B. Jackson Thief’s Primer 125: They can’t get the money, these people here [i.e. in prison] [...] So the tax people just blow it off.
1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 198: ‘Blow it off!’ v. – ‘Forget about it!’.
1973		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 1: blow-off – to deny the existence of something [...] by behaving as if it does not exist.
1978		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 1: blow off – to make other plans or to ignore previous ones.
1983		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 1: blow off – stop worrying about something, neglect something.
1989		A. Vachss Hard Candy (1990) 193: ‘I dont know,’ I told him. Not blowing him off - it was the truth.
1991		D. Simon Homicide (1993) 451: In their haste [...] they had blown off the earlier searches.
1993		Tarantino & Avery Pulp Fiction [film script] 114: Don’t you fuckin’ do that! Don’t blow this shit off!
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 78: Had some wicked body odor coming off her, too, like she’d blown off showers for a week.
2000		J. Ellroy ‘Balls to the Wall’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 26: The Morales fan shrugged. The neutral tried to pay him. The Morales fan blew off the money.
2004		T. Winton Turning (2005) 143: Raelene blew off darts night altogether and just went straight to Dan and Sherry’s.
2009		N. Flexner Disassembled Man [ebook] Within a month, Ruth was already talking marriage. I just blew it off.
2012		K. Tomlinson ‘Participatory Democracy’ in ThugLit Oct. [ebook] Then a kid [...] asked him about his promise to generate jobs. And the candidate blew him off.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 51: [G]etting shit-canned so majestically after refusing desk duty and blowing off therapy.

7. (US campus, also blow it off) to fail an examination.

1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 83: Blow it off [...] Waste time, not study.
1982		W. Safire What’s The Good Word? 301: Other schools prefer ‘veg out’, [...] to turn into a vegetable, after one ‘blows off,’ or fails.

8. (US) to kill; thus blown off, killed.

1981

M. Baker Nam (1982) 88: Your fucking friend got blown off. He died on you.

9. (US) to reject a sexual advance; thus blown off, rejected.

1989		J. Doyle College Sl. Dict. 🌐 bag [Princeton] to cut, to blow off.
1999		J. Ridley Love Is a Racket 138: Women get hit on out here, but not many get blown off.