blow up — escalate rapidly
to become much more serious or intense very quickly, especially in reference to a situation, argument, or conflict.
Say it like a native
Textbook The minor disagreement rapidly escalated into a major crisis.
Native The whole thing just blew up out of nowhere.
'Blow up' captures a situation exploding in scale fast; the formal paraphrase is heavy.
Pattern: blow up (into something)
In use
- What started as a minor disagreement quickly blew up into a major conflict between the two departments.conflict
- If negotiations are not handled carefully, a small misunderstanding can easily blow up into a significant diplomatic crisis.IELTS speaking
Common mistake
✗ The scandal blew up into the news.
✓ The scandal blew up overnight. / The story blew up in the news.
Here 'blow up' = suddenly become big or serious; don't add 'into the news'.
Common collocations
blow up (situation)— the row, the scandal, overnight, out of nowhere
Don't confuse it
Unlike the B1 sense ('explode'), this sense is not literal and does not refer to physical destruction. It also differs from the B2 sense ('become very angry'), as it describes the escalation of a situation, not a person's emotional reaction.
Related
- blow up (explode) — 'blow up' also has the more basic meaning 'explode'; this is the advanced sense.