blow (sb/sth) up
— phrasal verb with blow uk/bləʊ/us/bloʊ/verb blew, blown
B1 to destroy something or kill someone with a bomb, or to be destroyed or killed by a bomb:
They threatened to blow up the plane if their demands were not met.
He drove over a landmine and his Jeep blew up.
More examples
- A small band of guerrillas has blown up a train in the mountains.
- The army used precision-guided munitions to blow up enemy targets.
- They used plastic explosive to blow up the bridge.
- Guy Fawkes was executed for treason after he took part in a plot to blow up the British Parliament building.
- The car blew up when flames reached its fuel tank.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Exploding and erupting
- blast
- blowout
- burst
- burst in on sb/sth
- burst in/into (somewhere)
- detonate
- detonator
- explosion
- explosive
- flare
- go
- go off
- go pop idiom
- go up
- ignite
- live
- pop
- set
- set sth off
- test-fire
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