WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

blow up
    v 1: cause to burst with a violent release of energy; "We
         exploded the nuclear bomb" [syn: explode, detonate,
         blow up, set off]
    2: make large; "blow up an image" [syn: blow up, enlarge,
       magnify] [ant: reduce, scale down]
    3: get very angry and fly into a rage; "The professor combusted
       when the student didn't know the answer to a very elementary
       question"; "Spam makes me go ballistic" [syn: flip one's
       lid, blow up, throw a fit, hit the roof, hit the
       ceiling, have kittens, have a fit, combust, blow
       one's stack, fly off the handle, flip one's wig, lose
       one's temper, blow a fuse, go ballistic]
    4: add details to [syn: embroider, pad, lard, embellish,
       aggrandize, aggrandise, blow up, dramatize,
       dramatise]
    5: burst and release energy as through a violent chemical or
       physical reaction;"the bomb detonated at noon"; "The Molotov
       cocktail exploded" [syn: detonate, explode, blow up]
    6: exaggerate or make bigger; "The charges were inflated" [syn:
       inflate, blow up, expand, amplify]
    7: fill with gas or air; "inflate a balloons" [syn: inflate,
       blow up] [ant: deflate]
    8: to swell or cause to enlarge, "Her faced puffed up from the
       drugs"; "puffed out chests" [syn: puff, puff up, blow
       up, puff out]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

271 Moby Thesaurus words for "blow up":
   accelerate, add to, adulate, aggrandize, aggravate, amplify, annoy,
   apotheosize, arouse, augment, awake, awaken, backfire, be angry,
   be excitable, beef up, belaud, belie, bellow, bepraise, blast,
   bless, blitz, bloat, blow, blow a fuse, blow a gasket,
   blow a hurricane, blow great guns, blow out, blow over,
   blow sky-high, blow the coals, blow to pieces, blow up, blueprint,
   bluster, boast of, boil, boil over, bomb, bombard, brag about,
   brain, breeze, breeze up, brew, bring down, bristle, broaden,
   build, build up, bulk, bulk out, burn, burn to death, burst, bust,
   call forth, call up, catch fire, catch the infection, celebrate,
   come apart, come to nothing, come up, complicate, concentrate,
   condense, consolidate, crescendo, cry up, cut down, cut to pieces,
   deal a deathblow, deepen, deflate, deify, detonate, develop,
   dilate, discharge, disconfirm, discredit, disintegrate, disprove,
   distend, double, drop, emblazon, enhance, enkindle, enlarge,
   enrage, eulogize, exacerbate, exaggerate, exalt, excite,
   excite easily, expand, explode, expose, extend, extol,
   fail miserably, fan, fan the fire, fan the flame, feed the fire,
   fell, fire, fire up, fizz out, fizzle, fizzle out, flame, flame up,
   flare up, flash up, flatter, flip, fly out, foment, frag, frenzy,
   freshen, fulminate, fume, gather, get excited, get nowhere,
   give the quietus, glorify, go into hysterics, go off, go phut,
   gun down, hang up, have a tantrum, heat, heat up, heighten,
   hero-worship, hike, hike up, hit the ceiling, hop up, hot up, huff,
   idolize, impassion, incense, incinerate, incite, increase, inflame,
   inflate, infuriate, intensify, invalidate, jazz up, jugulate,
   key up, kindle, lapidate, lather up, laud, lay low, let off,
   light the fuse, light up, lionize, madden, magnify, make complex,
   make much of, mine, misfire, move, mushroom, negate, negative,
   overexcite, overpraise, panegyrize, pay tribute, pipe up, pistol,
   poleax, poop out, porter aux nues, praise, print, process,
   prove the contrary, puff, puff up, pump, pump up, puncture, rage,
   raise, ramify, ramp, rant, rant and rave, rarefy, rave, redouble,
   reinforce, riddle, rouse, run a temperature, salute, seethe,
   set astir, set fire to, set in, set off, set on fire, sharpen,
   shoot, shoot down, shoot to death, shotgun, show up, silence,
   smolder, soup up, spring, squall, stab to death, steam up, step up,
   stir, stir the blood, stir the embers, stir the feelings, stir up,
   stone, stone to death, storm, strengthen, stretch, strike dead,
   sufflate, summon up, swell, take fire, touch off, triple, trumpet,
   turn a hair, turn on, undercut, up, vaporize, waft, wake, wake up,
   waken, warm, warm the blood, whet, whiff, whiffle, whip up, widen,
   work into, work up



The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):

blow up
 vi.

    1. [scientific computation] To become unstable. Suggests that the
    computation is diverging so rapidly that it will soon overflow or at least
    go nonlinear.

    2. Syn. blow out.


The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

blow up

   1. Of a scientific computation: to become unstable.  It
   suggests that the computation is diverging so rapidly that it
   will soon overflow or at least go nonlinear.

   2. blow out.

   [Jargon File]