(This is a series on Phrasal Verbs. There are hundreds of phrasal verbs and many of them have no relation to the words that form them. When you are learning a new phrasal verb, I recommend learning it as a completely new piece of vocabulary, instead of trying to make sense of the two pieces of the word.)
Blow up is a phrasal verb with three different, but related, meanings. The first meaning of blow up is to explode. The second meaning of blow up is to explode emotionally or verbally. The final meaning of blow up is to become very big and famous very quickly.
Examples
- Did you see the gas station blow up last night? There was a problem with the pressure.
- I blew up at my boss last night. He wouldn’t let me go home even after finishing all my work.
- Facebook blew up really quickly in the middle of the 2000’s.
