This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2556.
Don't blow off phrasal verbs.
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In this part two of our three-part series, get three more phrasal verbs that start with the word blow and find out how they bring down the wall of formality for more connections.
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Hey, Lindsay, how's it going?
Hey, it's going pretty well, Aubrey.
I'm getting ready for the weekend.
So all good, all good.
What about you?
How are things on your end?
Do you think there's anything this weekend that you're going to that's just going to blow you away?
Oh, I don't think so.
I'm not sure what's on tap for this weekend.
Nothing major.
I really want to watch the movie Father of the Bride again.
I was talking to my father about that.
You're like, it's a rewatch, so it might not blow me away.
That's a great movie, but it's a good one.
Yeah.
What are we talking about on the show today?
Yeah, this is part two of a three-part series.
You can definitely listen out of order, so stay to the end.
We'll give you details if you missed part one.
Okay.
Many of the verbs and phrasal verbs with blow have multiple meanings.
We talked about blow dried and a few others that were especially tricky in past tense.
And today we're going to cover three more of these, each of which has a few different meanings.
Amazing.
This must be one of the most common base verbs in the English language.
Yeah, it seems that way, right?
So many different meanings.
And then three more in part three.
So definitely hit follow so that you don't miss that one when it comes out.
I love it.
But before we get into it, I want to call out some of our amazing listeners over on Spotify for leaving us incredible reviews.
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Yes.
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Okay.
Yes.
Awesome.
All right.
Let's dive in with these fun phrasal verbs.
Yes.
So the first one is blow over, which means to pass without serious consequences.
We'll often say this about a storm.
The storm blew over.
I think the storm is going to blow over means it's going to pass us without being like extreme or terrible.
Yeah.
So that's kind of the physical, the literal use of that phrase.
But then we also use it for situations that you hope will pass.
Like, don't worry, the argument will blow over soon.
Right.
Exactly.
Like it's going we're going to get past it.
And you're thinking it's not going to explode first.
Like it's going to blow over.
Right.
Or the controversy blew over after a few days.
Kind of petered out is another way we'll say that it's going to become less serious.
We'll be past it.
Yeah.
I feel like these days there's always a scandal.
It's like every week there's a new scandal and a new news story.
And Usually many of them just kind of blow over after a few days because the news cycle, the 24 hour news cycle,
Something else comes up.
Exactly.
The CNN loop.
Right.
So blow over really common blow away.
And this is the one you asked me at the beginning.
Right.
To be impressed by something.
Right.
Like her performance blew me away.
Maybe you go to an impressive opera, Broadway show, something like that.
A great film.
Say like Wicked.
I was blown away by the performances in Wicked.
But then, of course, has two other meanings.
Yeah.
Literal meanings.
I mean, you grew up in Idaho.
There's some really strong wind in Idaho.
Right, Aubrey?
Have you ever been like, did you ever have like papers blown away or items?
I've been physically blown away by the wind.
The wind is so strong where I live in Idaho, especially in the winter, that you'd step outside and be like physically pushing.
And yet we're like, yeah, the papers were blown away by the wind.
This is very common.
The wind's just throwing everything around.
You can't ever schedule anything for outside.
Wow.
That's wild.
Oh my gosh.
Parts of Colorado get really windy too.
I was seeing something in the news the other night.
One town, I think it's Southwestern Colorado, got up to a hundred mile an hour winds.
It was crazy.
That is so crazy.
Like you can't really even stand up outside when it's 100 miles.
Oh, the cows fly away.
I mean, it's crazy.
It's like tornado winds.
Then if we think about competitiveness and competing, how does this play into being defeated?
Yes, a blow away also means to defeat. easily or like soundly by a lot.
So you could say our team blew them away in the finals.
Maybe the score was like 60 to zero.
That's when you'll say we blew them away.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's clearly a win.
And there are other.
I mean, we could do a whole other episode on All Ears English about how to say you really crushed someone.
Yeah, there are a lot of ways to say that.
You need all of the words for like the sports headlines.
They need lots of ways to say that.
Clean up, right?
There's a lot of things we could say.
So that'll come another day, guys.
Make sure you're following the show.
But for today, our third phrasal verb with blow is blow off.
What does this mean, Aubrey?
So first to ignore or skip something you know he blew off the meeting.
To go golfing would mean he just decided not to go.
And not because he was sick and couldn't go like to intentionally not go.
You blow it off.
It's never it's never when you can't go.
It's when you don't want to go.
Right.
It's not like you like you said, not when you're sick or physically can't go into work or something.
No, exactly.
Like playing hooky.
Yeah, you're playing hooky.
Exactly.
Like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, right?
Right.
He blew off school.
Exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then we could also say release energy or stress.
I mean...
I like to run to blow off steam.
Aubrey, what do you like to do to blow off steam if you want to release stress?
I wish I liked to run to blow off steam.
Sometimes I'll do a bike ride to blow off steam or go for a walk, play sports, but running.
I've always wanted to get into running.
I know how good it is for you, but I just really hate it.
Yeah, it's good for you.
But then all my friends who are like marathon runners in their 40s and 50s.
They all have bad knees and are like having surgery now.
So like a little running is good for you, but not too much.
Not too much, right?
We don't want the knee issues that come with it.
It's true.
It's true.
Okay.
So Aubrey, we're going to take a quick break and then we'll come back and do a role play.
All right.
Yes.
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Okay, here we are for our role play for today.
Aubrey, we're friends having a coffee on an outdoor patio.
Sounds wonderful.
It does sound wonderful, except it might be a little windy so that I could use one of these.
Yeah.
All right, I'll start us out.
Yesterday was a mess.
I got into an argument with my manager.
Yeah, I heard.
Honestly, I think it'll blow over in a day or two.
Stuff like that usually does.
I hope so.
I don't want it turning into a big thing.
Whoa, that gust of wind almost blew your papers away.
Should we move inside?
No, it's so nice out here.
I'll put them in my bag.
By the way, did you watch the game last night?
Yes, our team blew them away.
It wasn't even close.
Totally.
And that final goal, I was absolutely blown away.
I did not see it coming.
Oh, wait, I just realized, didn't you have a meeting this morning?
Yeah, I kind of blew it off.
I needed a break.
Honestly, I get it.
After a week like that, sometimes you just need to blow off steam.
Exactly.
I went for a long run and felt way better afterward.
This is how you know it's not me in this role play.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You probably wouldn't do that.
It's true.
I love this scenario.
Do you ever get in a scenario where it's like early spring and you're just hoping it's nice enough to sit outside, but it's really not.
Maybe in Arizona it's just nice enough all the time, but in New England No, there are definitely days where you'll sit on the patio, and then it's still too hot.
The sun is... Or sometimes it's a little chilly and if they don't have like patio heaters...
So sometimes it seems like it would be nice enough, and then it's just a little too cold or a little too hot.
Yeah, that was definitely a hallmark of life in New England.
We would try to go out and sit outside in April or May and then it'd be sunny.
We'd be like, this will be great.
We can eat outside first time of the year.
And then the wind starts and then the cold starts.
And then we sort of make eye contact.
We're like, oh, we're still lying to ourselves.
It's not that great, but we're going to grit our teeth.
That's the same with often with us at the heat.
The cafes here will have, or any restaurant has misters on the patio.
So they're like misting water to make it cooler.
But then often you'll see it's too hot.
Nobody's on the patio, but the misters are going.
I'm like, what a waste of water.
Oh, no water out.
No one's sitting out there.
Wow.
We don't really have those as much in Colorado.
That's interesting.
So it's a really, really hot climate in Arizona.
Yeah.
Wow.
Let's go through this.
We used all of them here.
You first started with, I think it'll blow over.
I'm talking about an argument I had and you're kind of helping reassure me that you don't think it's going to be a big problem.
Like everyone's going to get past it in a couple of days.
Exactly.
Get past it.
It's going to move on.
We're going to forget about it.
We're going to move on.
It's going to pass.
Right.
And then I said, whoa, that gust of wind almost blew your papers away.
So your papers almost physically, you know, launched into the air.
And then we start talking about sports.
You're saying our team blew them away.
That means the score was not close.
We won by a landslide yep, exactly.
And then you said totally, and that final goal.
I was absolutely blown away.
So you were shocked yeah, it must have been something big, like a hail mary, or soccer, like the bicycle kick or like something really impressive, really good yeah, something really good.
Or in tennis they call it the pesci, where you hit between your legs and like i've seen a passing shot like that before, like win a match.
It's wild, that's awesome, especially when it's like a game winning shot.
It's so cool.
It's so cool.
Yeah.
And then you said, didn't you have a meeting this morning?
And you said, yeah, I kind of blew it off.
Right.
I needed a break.
Right.
So you just kind of no showed.
Yeah.
And I might have let them know, but maybe I lied and said I was sick or right.
I intentionally didn't go when I could have.
I blew it off.
Yep.
And then what did you say?
It was the last thing you said.
And then we're saying after a week like that, sometimes you need to blow off steam, right?
And then I say, yes, I went for a run to blow off steam.
That's often if you're stressed or there's too much going on, or if you're upset.
We'll say we blow off steam.
It's just anything you do to get all of those emotions out.
Love it.
So, as you guys know, probably unlikely we'd use blow so many times in a little conversation at a coffee shop.
Or we would at least mention it at the end.
One of them would be like, did we just say blow like 14 times?
We make a joke of it, which we still need to do an episode on that, right?
Making it like all of a sudden you're somehow repeating each other or repeating a theme, and then you make a joke about that.
The fact that you're doing that great episode idea for another day.
Aubrey, where can our listeners go now?
Yeah.
So go check out part one if you missed it.
That was episode 2552, how to master confusing past tense verbs in English.
So don't miss that.
And then hit follow so that you don't miss part three.
Yeah.
And for the takeaway today guys, I mean casual expressions like this phrasal verbs that are just colloquial, they're every day, are the seeds of connection.
Right, Aubrey?
I mean, this is where it comes from.
Yes, if we use there are other verbs that mean all of these things, but it would be a little more formal of a conversation.
We intentionally use the phrasal verbs to pull down that wall of formality, to be more personable with them.
And we're much more likely to use phrasal verbs in a conversation like that.
Yeah, I love the way you put that.
Pull down the wall of formality.
We've mentioned that a few times on the show, but this is how you get connected to someone, okay?
So write these down, use these as much as you can, and let us know how it goes, all right?
Awesome.
Yes, let us know on Spotify or on YouTube.
Thanks again for the reviews and the comments.
We love them.
All right.
Talk soon, Aubrey.
Bye.
Awesome.
Thanks.
Bye.
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