blow up in one's face

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English

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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blow up in one's face (third-person singular simple present blows up in one's face, present participle blowing up in one's face, simple past blew up in one's face, past participle blown up in one's face)

  1. (intransitive, idiomatic) To fail disastrously.
    • 1972, James Whittaker, Albert Trieschman, editors, Children Away from Home: A Sourcebook of Residential Treatment:
      Whether the specific pecking order of the game I let them play today had anything to do with the fact that it blew up in my face after five minutes is a question that can be answered only in empirical terms.
    • 1999, Dena Rosenbloom, Mary Beth Williams, Barbara E. Watkins, Life after trauma: a workbook for healing:
      If I took the risk to speak with my friend and the whole thing blew up in my face, I'd probably feel ashamed and exposed whenever I thought about it for a very, very long time.
    • 2002, Joan Barfoot, Critical injuries, page 118:
      So I wish you luck, but don't come crying to me when it blows up in your face.

Translations

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See also

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