blowoff

• blow-off

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blowoff (plural blowoffs)

1. Something that is blown off.
   • 1910 July 12, Wilbur Arnold, “Blowoff Tank”, in Power and the Engineer, volume 32, page 1265:

     It is evident that if the outlet pipes were only of the same total area as the blowoff from the boiler the pressure in the tank would very soon equal that in the boiler .

   • 1974, Skylab 4 Visual Observations Project Report, pages 12-4:

     However, the cirrus blowoff from the top of the cumulonimbus clouds indicates an easterly component, or less of a westerly component, in the upper troposphere.

   • 1986, Peter S. Parke, Satellite Imagery Interpretation for Forecastors- Volume 55, page 7:

     Often the blowoff from numerous thunderstorms combine to form an extensive cirrostratus shield as seen at D in Figure 39

   Coordinate terms: flowoff, runoff

2. The explosive separation of part of a rocket etc in order to prevent its destruction and allow for retrieval
3. The act of blowing off (steam, water, atmosphere, etc.)
   • 1959, Robert J. Bacigalupi, ‎Erwin A. Lezberg, Blowoff of Propane and Hydrogen Diffusion Flames at High Mach Number, Ramjet Conditions, page 4:

     All blowoffs were effected by slowly decreasing the burner pressure at intervals of air temperature, airflow, and fuel flow.

   • 1962, John Milton Webber, Fiber Qualities and Culture of Phormium in California, page 4:

     Some investigators claim that snow blowoff from cropland in prairie areas not protected by shelterbelts may be as much as 50 to 75 percent (Gorshenin et al. 1934), and, as a consequence, protected fields get 2½ to 3 times as much moisture from snow as unprotected land.

   • 2005, Kenneth E. Heselton, Boiler Operator's Handbook:

     Some of you will argue this point because you've used it for everything, everything but the only purpose for bottom blowoff.

   • 2010, Raymond T. Pierrehumbert, Principles of Planetary Climate, page 578:

     There may have been blowoff in early Titan's history, but on an icy body there are plenty of volatile resrvoirs available to restock an atmosphere.

   • 2012, K.L. Mittal, Particles on Surfaces 1: Detection, Adhesion, and Removal, page 173:

     For the materials mixed at 0.3 and 0.9 ks , no toner can be seen after blowoff at the highest pressure .

   • 2024, Allan T. Kirkpatrick, ‎Kenneth K. Kuo, Principles of Combustion, page 289:

     Between fuel concentrations A and B, the blowout of a lifted flame occurs at a lower velocity than the flame blowoff from the port.

4. A line or pipe for draining a siphon (for cleaning, inspection, etc.)
   • 1918, The Au Sable News - Volumes 4-5, page 22:

     The blowoff line runs from the lowest water drum, or mud drum, as it is commonly known, to the sewer , river or circulating water discharge .

   • 1945, Division of Agriculture, University of Arkansas, Report Series - Agricultural Experiment Station, page 5:

     The level of fluid in the main trap will have moved down the same distance the level in the blowoff trap has moved .

   • 1974, United States. Bureau of Reclamation, Design of Small Canal Structures, page 375:

     Blowoff structures are provided at or near the low point of relatively long inverted siphons to permit draining the pipe for inspection and maintenance or wintertime shutdown.

5. (brewing) The removal of excess foam and carbon dioxide from the fermentation vessel during the active fermentation stage.
   • 1997, Al Korzonas, Homebrewing, page 347:

     I performed several experiments to determine the effect of the blowoff method of fermentation on bitterness, protein, and higher alcohols.

   • 2012, Dave Miller, Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide:

     This blowoff method is wasteful because you lose a couple of quarts of beer, but it is the best way to reconcile the sanitation advantages of a closed fermenter with the behavior of top cropping yeast strains.

   • 2019, Denny Conn, ‎Drew Beechum, Simple Homebrewing: Great Beer, Less Work, More Fun, page 21:

     But in retrospective of his photography, there is a shot of a lone carboy perched on a table, lit by a bare bulb with a. blowoff hose curling around in a graceful arc to a round flask with settled yeast.

   • 2022, Karllo Mello, Brewer: Prepare Like an Expert:

     I recommend the blowoff method of fermentation---non-blowoff versions of this beer have tasted harsh, astringent and too bitter.

6. (finance) A period of rapid and usually unsustainable increase (or, sometimes, decrease) in market prices.
   • 2005, Richard L. Weissman, Mechanical Trading Systems, page 68:

     Often this throwing-in-the-towel mentality is pure crowd following and results in entry at the blowoff phase of the trend .

   • 2014, Barton Biggs, Biggs on Finance, Economics, and the Stock Market, page 221:

     A crash in china would reverberate across Asia, and a blowoff that resulted in political instability would have dire consequences.

   • 2015, Robert J. Seifert, Profiting from Weekly Options:

     All the questions refer to trades made in the blowoff phase of the market , whether stated or not.

   • 2022, Nathan Bell, Options trading strategies:

     If the current trend doesn't resolve itself in a rounding top/bottom and costs begin to accelerate at a much steeper angle than the sustainable 45-degree rate, the market will more than likely end in a blowoff.

7. A curt or uninterested dismissal; a failure to respond adequately.
   • 2012, Virgil Scudder, ‎Ken Scudder, World Class Communication, page 26:

     People have no trouble detecting, and resenting, a blowoff.

   • 2016, Dave Kerpen, The Art of People:

     It's also a minute that person is spending with someone who doesn't truly want to be spending it with him. Thus, the right thing to do is to learn the art of the blowoff.

   • 2020, Jason McGathey, Days Without End:

     In walking toward this makeshift auction house myself, I am considering though, if it's just step one of a genial blowoff, though councluding it didn't feel like a blowoff.

   • 2024, Jessa York, Best Unlaid Plans:

     I sent Ronnie a quick text this morning, but she only responded with a quick, "Hi, I'm good. Busy day. TTYL." And that was it. To be truthful, it felt like a bit of a blowoff.

   He tried to get it fixed but they gave him the blowoff.

8. (crime) The stage in a con game in which one gets rid of the mark after taking his or her money.
   • 1956, Chic Conwell, ‎Edwin Hardin Sutherland, The Professional Thief, page 65:

     Then comes the blowoff, by which they get rid of him .

   • 1969, Iceberg Slim (,Robert Beck), Trick Baby, page 123:

     White grifters call it the blowoff.

   • 2023, Alan Prendergast, Gangbuster, page 43:

     At the last moment something goes wrong, the money is lost (taking off the touch), and a physical altercation or other looming drama hurries the sucker out the door – and preferably out of town (the blowoff).

9. The exit of a crowd from a circus or carnival act.
   • 2005, Joe Nickell, Secrets of the Sideshows, page 77:

     The most dramatic blowoff I have witnessed was at the single-O side-show featuring Atasha the Gorilla Girl, which actually frightened patrons out of the show.

   • 2016, Elizabeth Carter Wellington, Circus Girl:

     Margarita is going to hire you to sell her toys in the ring, so she can run the toy stand out in the midway and catch the blowoff crowd when people leave the big top.

   • 2023, Ellen Datlow, Nightmare Carnival:

     The noise of the crowd swelled in the blowoff as they were herded down the midway and out of the circus lot , then evaporated , leaving the twilight air to be filled instead with cicada chittering.

10. An extra attraction offered to the audience of a sideshow or carnival act, usually hidden behind a curtain and requiring an additional payment; aftershow.
    • 1969, Henry W. Clune, O'Shaughnessy's Cafe, page 216:

      Not in the girlie shows, stripping naked for the yokenecks who give up a couple of bucks for the blowoff. The aftershow.

    • 2005, Joe Nickell, Secrets of the Sideshows, page 77:

      Some showmen reserve their best acts or exhibits for the blowoff.

    • 2012, Tony Gangi, Carny Sideshows:: Weird Wonders of The Midway, page 203:

      Since the inside talker was also usually the magician, he'd do his brief magic act for the ladies and children while the gents paid a little extra to go behind the curtain to see the blowoff.

    • 2014, Robert Bogdan, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit, page 104:

      In some minor shows the blowoff was promoted as "for adult males only," giving the impression that the customer was buying a peek at nudity–which in some instances he was.

11. A finale.
    • 2005, D. Bordner, Roller Babes, page 83:

      All the way, we played cards, smoked, and laughed over how Gloria and this other skater got in this fight for every night's blowoff .

    • 2015, Bob Backlund, ‎Robert H. Miller, Backlund:

      Patterson, who had just come off the Alley Fight blowoff to his feud with Sarge, was looking for something new to do, and had decided that a feud with Mosca would be his next adventure.

    • 2015, Bruce Fife, ‎Tony Blanco, ‎Steve Kissell, Creative Clowning, page 54:

      A good story or buildup is what makes the punch line (or blowoff, in the case of a skit) funny.

12. A fight that marks the culmination of a long period of antagonism.
    • 1950, Caary Paul Jackson, Rookie First Baseman, page 157:

      The blowoff came when Johnny went to bat again in the sixth frame .

    • 1955, “People”, in Time, volume 66, page 30:

      The unwilling storm center of last year's Army-McCarthy blowoff, Civilian Schine planned to take up his chores ( for which he drew handsome salaries throughout his Army days) as president and general manager of his father's nation-spanning chain of five hotels (e.g. Forida's Boca Raton, Los Angeles' Ambassador) and as boss of a string of more than 150 movie houses.

    • 2010, Mark Bechtel, He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back:

      "I guess it was a blowoff of one of those things that happens over time," Chief explained at the time. "You might say we settled an old score."

13. (colloquial) An outburst of temper or excitement.
    • 1949, Richard Summers, Vigilante, page 7:

      Besides, I had come down for rest and the kind of blowoff a man needs after five months of being snowed in and working his tail off.

    • 1958, George Garrett, King of the Mountain, page 178:

      He either talked along about home or else he paced up and down his cage silently and you could tell there was a big blowoff coming .

    • 1987, Philip Varney, New Mexico's Best Ghost Towns:

      The town became what is called a "blowoff" town , where the soldiers would go to gamble, dance, drink, and carouse with women.

    • 2006, Kevin Allen Leonard, The Battle for Los Angeles: Racial Ideology and World War II, page 173:

      But they used to get pushed around all the time and I guess that's what was behind the blowoff in the street riots here .

    • 2023, Philomena Cunk, Cunk on Everything: The Encyclopedia Philomena:

      Can you tell if someone's telling a lie if they do a blowoff when they're saying it ?

14. An act of oral sex.
    • 1959, Wilfred Nevue, Puget Sound Lumberjack, page 128:

      It was a general saying that lumberjacks talked of their town experiences in the campa and that they did their expert logging in the saloons and in the houses of prostitution. Blowoffs before the ladies .

    • 1972, Bruce Jackson, In the Life: Versions of the Criminal Experience, page 390:

      Through Oregon and Washington we were cut down quite a bit; we couldn't give the blowoff and we couldn't strip all the way and things like that.

    • 2021, Dena Blake, Love By Proxy:

      Was she actually getting a blowoff after phone sex?

15. (UK, slang) A fart.
16. A class that does not require much effort to pass; a course where one does not have to work.
    • 2007, Ann Roberts, Brilliant:

      And finally, if you think this is going to be an easy, blowoff class, you're sorely mistaken.

    • 2014, Gary Newsom, People Like That:

      And, for sixth period, the last one, he had General Business. Probably and hopefully a blowoff.

    • 2024, Russell T. McCutcheon, Teaching in the Study of Religion and Beyond:

      This initial interaction communicates, yes, that the course is not a blowoff class.

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