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Definition 2024


blow_upon

blow upon

English

Verb

blow upon (third-person singular simple present blows upon, present participle blowing upon, simple past blew upon, past participle blown upon)

  1. To defame, discredit; make someone the subject of a scandal.
    • 1867, Dickens, Oliver Twist, chapter 13
      'I'm afraid,' said the Jew, 'that he may say something which will get us into trouble.'
      'That's very likely,' returned Sikes with a malicious grin. 'You're blowed upon, Fagin.'
  2. (informal, dated) To inform against.
    • Charles Lamb
      How far the very custom of hearing anything spouted withers and blows upon a fine passage, may be seen in those speeches from [Shakespeare's] Henry V. which are current in the mouths of schoolboys.
    • Macaulay
      a lady's maid whose character had been blown upon
    • 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
      If it wos so, which I still don't say it is (for I will not prewaricate to you, sir), let that there boy keep his father's place, and take care of his mother; don't blow upon that boy's father do not do it, sir and let that father go into the line of the reg'lar diggin', and make amends for what he would have undug []

References

  • Blown upon - E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898 - hosted at bartleby.com