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]

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 January 2023):

blow up

   1.  A description of a function that, as its
   input changes over a finite interval, its output goes from
   stable (steadily increasing or decreasing) to unstable
   (oscilating wildly between extreme values).  The term might
   also be used for successive elements in a discrete sequence or
   stepwise approximation of a continuous function.  Rather than
   becoming unstable, the value may simply tend to positive or
   negative infinity.

   When calculating such a function or sequence, a computer will
   typically suffer overflow.

   2. blow out.

   [Jargon File]

   (2019-12-27)


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.