blow out of the water

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian); “blow someone out of the water”:

  (file)

Verb

blow out of the water (third-person singular simple present blows out of the water, present participle blowing out of the water, simple past blew out of the water, past participle blown out of the water)

1. (idiomatic) To trounce; to defeat thoroughly, as at a game or in battle.
   • 2011, G. George, Another Job, page 166:

     This turn of events sheds a whole new light on the case. Destiny's attorneys seem to have a new pep in their step. They get busy making phone calls and assuring the family that things are about to turn in their favor. "We now have information to blow them out of the water!" the lead attorney asserts vigorously.

2. (nautical) To rapidly destroy (a vessel) with overwhelming weapons fire.
   • 2020 May 3, Drachinifel, 39:34 from the start, in The Drydock - Episode 092‎^[1], archived from the original on 1 October 2022:

     […] And if I open fire - again, reading into the fact they've come clearly cleared for action and there is a mutual defense pact in place - well, I might survive a few fractions of a second longer than I would if I pointed my guns straight at them, but I'm still not really gonna be coming out of this intact, so... I'm not suicidal; I'm not gonna actually fulfill any of my mission objectives by getting myself blown out of the water; so, yeah, I - I would be frantically radioing the Kriegsmarine headquarters, saying "please, could I have some new orders, or, if I am going to have to die, can you please confirm that that's the case?" […]

   • 2021 March 10, Drachinifel, 27:16 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 1 (IJN 3(?) : 2 USN)‎^[2], archived from the original on 7 November 2022:

     The somewhat-shattered San Francisco also managed to make it out, although not before she'd come within seconds of being blown out of the water by Helena, as the two had lost contact in the dark and the flagship had loomed back out of the murk with no one and nothing available to answer the light cruiser's challenge - the radio, the whistle, the signal lights, the flags, et cetera, had all been destroyed. Luckily, one of the few surviving signalmen found a small handheld signal light and managed to blink out the ship's hull number.

Translations

to defeat

• French: battre (fr), (colloquial) poutrer (fr)
• Japanese: 打ち負かす (ja) (uchimakasu)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: slå til jorden

• Spanish: hacer mierda (vulgar)