blown

1. 1
   verb

   Past participle of blow.

   All the fuses had blown by the time help arrived.

   The candles were blown out before she made her wish.

   Note

   A strong participle built the old way: Old English blāwen, past participle of blāwan, still carries the -n ending it shares with grown and thrown. It pairs with have in the perfect (the wind has blown all night) and with be in the passive (the glass was blown by hand); the simple past is blew. Several adjectives grew straight out of it, among them the "formed by blowing" sense.

2. 2
   adjective

   Failed; ruined or wasted, as an opportunity that has been lost.

   Their blown lead in the final minutes cost them the title.

   A blown audition can haunt a young actor for years.

   Similarwasted, botched, failed, lost

   Note

   Mechanical and electrical failure is where this sense is most at home: a fuse that has burned through, a head gasket that has given way. The figurative uses, such as a blown lead or a blown chance, borrow that picture of a part failing under pressure. It works before the noun (a blown fuse) and after a linking verb (the fuse is blown).

   The lights went out because of a blown fuse.

   A blown head gasket kept the car off the road for a week.

3. 3
   adjective

   Formed or shaped by blowing, as glass is.

   The artisan sold delicate blown bottles at the fair.

   Antique blown glassware can be remarkably valuable.

   Note

   A glassmaker's word, used of glass that was shaped by inflating molten material rather than cast, molded or pressed. It is the adjective in blown glass and blown bottles. Its work is mostly contrastive: calling a piece blown sets breath-shaped work apart from glass that took its form from a mold.

4. 4
   adjective

   Panting and out of breath after exertion.

   The horse was thoroughly blown after the long gallop.

   Quite blown from the steep climb, she paused to rest.

   Similarwinded, breathless, puffed

5. 5
   adjective

   Distended, swollen, or puffed up with gas or air.

   After grazing on damp clover, several cows were badly blown.

   By morning the drowned sheep was blown and stiff.

   Similarbloated, distended, swollen

   Note

   Every adjective sense of the word starts from the old past participle of blow: Old English blāwen, from blāwan, with the -n ending still visible today. Cattle are said to be blown when green fodder has filled them with gas, and the word suits any body puffed out from within. It is not comparable; a beast is blown or it is not.

6. 6
   adjective

   Intoxicated by drugs, especially marijuana.

   They got blown and spent the night watching old movies.

   He showed up to the meeting visibly blown.

   Similarhigh, stoned, baked

   Oppositesober

7. 7
   adjective

   Fitted with a supercharger, or blower, that forces more air into the engine.

   A blown small-block was the centerpiece of his hot rod.

   The dragster's blown motor stuck up through the hood.

   Similarsupercharged

   Note

   Hot-rod talk, where a blower is the supercharger and a blown engine is one that has been given it. A blown small-block is a boast, not a complaint, and supercharged is the neutral synonym. Outside that world the same phrase usually means a ruined engine, as in the "failed" meaning, so only the context tells you which one is meant.

8. 8
   adjective

   With fly eggs and maggots covering its surface.

   The butcher discarded the blown carcass without a second look.

   In the summer heat, unprotected fish quickly turn blown.

   Similarflyblown, maggoty

   Note

   This sense is flyblown with its first half dropped, and in modern prose the fuller word is usually the clearer choice. Beside a carcass, blown on its own can also mean swollen with gas, as in the distended sense. A "blown carcass" stays ambiguous unless the context points to flies, maggots or summer heat.

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