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[blood and thunder] The violence and bloodshed of stories that present fast action rather than understanding of character. * /Crime movies and westerns usually have lots of blood and thunder./ Often used like an adjective. * /John likes to watch blood-and-thunder stories on television./

[blood freezes] See: BLOOD RUNS COLD.

[blood is thicker than water] Persons of the same family are closer to one another than to others; relatives are favored or chosen over outsiders. * /Mr. Jones hires his relatives to work in his store. Blood is thicker than water./

[blood runs cold] also [blood freezes] or [blood turns to ice] You are chilled or shivering from great fright or horror; you are terrified or horrified. - Usually used with a possessive. * /The horror movie made the children's blood run cold./ * /Mary's blood froze when she had to walk through the cemetery at night./ * /Oscar's blood turned to ice when he saw the shadow pass by outside the window./ Compare: HAIR STAND ON END, THE CREEPS.

[blood turns to ice] See: BLOOD RUNS COLD.

[bloody] See: SCREAM BLOODY MURDER.

[blot out] 1. To obstruct; cover; obscure. * /The high-rise building in front of our apartment house blots out the view of the ocean./ 2. To wipe out of one's memory. * /Jane can't remember the details when she was attacked in the streets; she blotted it out of her memory./

[blow] See: AT A BLOW, BODY BLOW, COME TO BLOWS, IT'S AN ILL WIND THAT BLOWS NOBODY GOOD, WAY THE WIND BLOWS or HOW THE WIND BLOWS.

[blow a fuse] or [blow a gasket] or [blow one's top] or [blow one's stack] , To become extremely angry; express rage in hot words. * /When Mr. McCarthy's son got married against his wishes, he blew a fuse./ * /When the umpire called Joe out at first, Joe blew his top and was sent to the showers./ Syn.: BLOW UP(1b), FLIP ONE'S LID, LOSE ONE'S TEMPER. Compare: BLOW OFF STEAM(2).

[blow great guns] See: GREAT GUNS.

[blow hot and cold] To change your ways or likes often; be fickle or changeable. * /Tom blows hot and cold about coming out for the baseball team; he cannot decide./ * /Mary blew hot and cold about going to college; every day she changed her mind./ * /The boys will get tired of Ann's blowing hot and cold./

[blow in] , To arrive unexpectedly or in a carefree way. * /The house was already full of guests when Bill blew in./ Compare SHOW UP(3).

[blow into] , To arrive at (a place) unexpectedly or in a carefree way. * /Bill blows into college at the last minute after every vacation./ * /Why Tom, when did you blow into town?/

[blow off steam] See: LET OFF STEAM.

[blow one's brains out] 1. To shoot yourself in the head. * /Mr. Jones lost all his wealth, so he blew his brains out./ 2. To work very hard; overwork yourself. * /The boys blew their brains out to get the stage ready for the play./ * /Mary is not one to blow her brains out./ Compare: BREAK ONE'S NECK.

[blow one's cool] , , To lose your composure or self-control. * /Whatever you say to the judge in court, make sure that you don't blow your cool./

[blow one's lines] or [fluff one's lines] , To forget the words you are supposed to speak while acting in a play. * /The noise backstage scared Mary and she blew her lines./

[blow one's mind] , , ; 1. To become wildly enthusiastic over something as if understanding it for the first time in an entirely new light. * /Read Lyall Watson's book "Supernature", it will simply blow your mind!/ 2. To lose one's ability to function, as if due to an overdose of drugs, * /Joe is entirely incoherent - he seems to have blown his mind./ Contrast: BLOW ONE'S COOL.

[blow one's own horn] or [toot one's own horn] , To praise yourself; call attention to your own skill, intelligence, or successes; boast. * /People get tired of a man who is always blowing his own horn./ * /A person who does things well does not have to toot his own horn; his abilities will be noticed by others./

[blow one's top] To become very excited, angry, hysterical, or furious. * /"No need to blow your top, Al," his wife said, "just because you lost a few dollars."/

[blow out] 1. To cease to function; fail; explode (said of tires and fuses). * /The accident occurred when Jim's tire blew out on the highway./ * /The new dishwasher blew out the fuses in the whole house./ 2. To extinguish. * /Jane blew out her birthday cake candles before offering pieces to the guests./

[blowout] 1. An explosion of a tire or a fuse. * /Jim's van veered sharply to the right after his car had a blowout./ 2. A big party. * /After graduation from college, my son and his friends staged a huge blowout./

[blow over] To come to an end; pass away with little or no bad effects. * /The sky was black, as if a bad storm were coming, but it blew over and the sun came out./ * /They were bitter enemies for a while, but the quarrel blew over./ * /He was much criticized for the divorce, but it all blew over after a few years./

[blow taps] To sound the final bugle call of the evening in a camp or military base. * /After taps is blown the boy scouts go to their bunks to sleep./

[blow the gaff] To open one's mouth to reveal a secret. * /When Al cheated on his wife, his younger brother blew the gaff on him./

[blow the lid off] , Suddenly to reveal the truth about a matter that has been kept as a secret either by private persons or by some governmental agency. * /The clever journalists blew the lid off the Watergate cover-up./

[blow the whistle on] , 1. To inform against; betray. * /The police caught one of the bank robbers, and he blew the whistle on two more./ 2. To act against, stop, or tell people the secrets of (crime or lawlessness). * /The mayor blew the whistle on gambling./ * /The police blew the whistle on hot reading./

[blow up] 1a. To break or destroy or to be destroyed by explosion. * /He blew up the plane by means of a concealed bomb./ * /The fireworks factory blew up when something went wrong in an electric switch./ 1b. To explode with anger or strong feeling; lose control of yourself. * /When Father bent the nail for the third time, he blew up./ Compare: BLOW A FUSE. 1c. To stop playing well in a game or contest, usually because you are in danger of losing or are tired; : To lose skill or control in pitching baseball. * /The champion blew up and lost the tennis match./ * /Our team was behind but the pitcher on the other team blew up and we got the winning runs./ 2. To be ruined as if by explosion; be ended suddenly. * /The whole scheme for a big party suddenly blew up./ 3a. To pump full of air; inflate. * /He blew his tires up at a filling station./ 3b. To make (something) seem bigger or important. * /It was a small thing to happen but the newspapers had blown it up until it seemed important./ 4. To bring on bad weather; also, to come on as bad weather. * /The wind had blown up a storm./ * /A storm had blown up./ 5. To copy in bigger form; enlarge. * /He blew up the snapshot to a larger size./

[blow up in one's face] , To fail completely and with unexpected force. * /The thief's plan to rob the bank blew up in his face when a policeman stopped him./

[blue] See: BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA, BOLT FROM THE BLUE, ONCE IN A BLUE MOON, OUT OF THE BLUE or OUT OF A CLEAR BLUE SKY.

[blue around the gills] See: GREEN AROUND THE GILLS.

[blue collar worker] A manual laborer who is probably a labor union member. * /Because Jack's father is a blue collar worker, Jack was so anxious to become an intellectual./ Contrast: WHITE COLLAR WORKER.

[blue in the face] , Very angry or upset; excited and very emotional. * /Tom argued with Bill until he was blue in the face./ * /Mary scolded Jane until she was blue in the face, but Jane kept on using Mary's paints./

[blue Monday] A Monday when you have to work after a happy weekend. * /It was blue Monday and John nodded sleepily over his books./ * /Housewives sometimes wish they could sleep through blue Monday./

[blue-pencil] To edit. * /The editor blue-penciled John's manuscript./

[bluff] See: CALL ONE'S BLUFF.

[blurt out] To suddenly say something even if one was not planning to do so, or if it was not expected of them. * /"My brother Bob is in jail," Tony blurted out, before anybody could stop him./

[blush] See: AT FIRST BLUSH.

[board] See: ACROSS THE BOARD, COLLEGE BOARDS, GO BY THE BOARD or PASS BY THE BOARD, ON BOARD, SANDWICH BOARD.

[boat] See: BURN ONE'S BRIDGES also BURN ONE'S BOATS, IN THE SAME BOAT, MISS THE BOAT, ROCK THE BOAT.

[bobby-soxer] A teen-aged girl. (1940s idiom) * /My two daughters, age 13 and 14, are typical bobby-soxers./

[bob up] See: POP UP(1).

[body] See: KEEP BODY AND SOUL TOGETHER.

[body blow] , A great disappointment; a bitter failure. * /When he failed to get on the team it came as a body blow to him./

[body English] , The wishful attempt to make a ball move in the right direction after it has been hit or let go, by twisting the body in the desired direction. * /He tried to help the putt fall by using body English./

[bog down] To be immobilized in mud, snow, etc.; slow down. * /Our research got bogged down for a lack of appropriate funding./ * /Don't get bogged down in too much detail when you write an action story./

[bog down, to get bogged down] , 1. To stop progressing; to slow to a halt. * /Work on the new building bogged down, because the contractor didn't deliver the needed concrete blocks./ 2. To become entangled with a variety of obstacles making your efforts unproductive or unsatisfying. * /The novelist wrote tittle last summer because she got bogged down in housework./

[boggle the mind] , To stop the rational thinking process by virtue of being too fantastic or incredible. * /It boggles the mind that John should have been inside a flying saucer!/

[boil] See: MAKE ONE'S BLOOD BOIL or MAKE THE BLOOD BOIL.

[boil down] 1. To boil away some of the water from; make less by boiling. * /She boiled down the maple sap to a thick syrup./ * /The fruit juice boiled down until it was almost not good for jelly./ 2. To reduce the length of; cut down; shorten. * /The reporter boiled the story down to half the original length./ 3. To reduce itself to; come down to; be briefly or basically. * /The whole discussion boils down to the question of whether the government should fix prices./

[boil over] 1. To rise due to boiling and overflow down the sides of a pan or a pot. * /"Watch out!" Jane cried. "The milk is boiling over on the stove!"/ 2. To become enraged to the point of being unable to contain oneself. * /John took a lot of abuse from his boss, but after 25 minutes he suddenly boiled over and told him what he thought of him./

[boiling point] 1. The temperature at which a liquid boils. * /The boiling point of water is 272° Fahrenheit./ 2. The time when you become very angry. * /He has a low boiling point./ * /After being teased for a long time, John reached the boiling point./ * /When John made the same mistake for the fourth time, his teacher reached the boiling point./ Compare: BLOW UP(1b), MAKE ONE'S BLOOD BOIL.

[bolt from the blue] Something sudden and unexpected; an event that you did not see coming; a great and usually unpleasant surprise; shock. * /We had been sure she was in Chicago, so her sudden appearance was a bolt from the blue./ * /His decision to resign was a bolt from the blue./ Compare: OUT OF THE BLUE.

[bombshell] See: EXPLODE A BOMBSHELL.

[bond] See: SAVINGS BOND.

[bone] See: BRED IN THE BONE, FEEL IN ONE'S BONES or KNOW IN ONE'S BONES, FUNNY BONE, MAKE NO BONES, SKIN AND BONES, T-BONE STEAK, WORK ONE'S FINGERS TO THE BONE.

[bonehead] , An unusually dense or stupid person. * /John is such a bonehead - small wonder he flunks all of his courses./

[bone of contention] Something to fight over; a reason for quarrels; the subject of a fight. * /The boundary line between the farms was a bone of contention between the two farmers./ * /The use of the car was a bone of contention between Joe and his wife./