blow the roof off

English

Verb

blow the roof off (third-person singular simple present blows the roof off, present participle blowing the roof off, simple past blew the roof off, past participle blown the roof off)

1. To give a great performance that causes the audience to go wild with enthusiasm.
   • 2017, Budd Friedman, Tripp Whetsell, The Improv:

     I gotta tell you, you blew the roof off. You see that girl over there? She was just raving about your performance.

   • 2020, Ronan Brady, Worlds Apart: An Alternative Journey to becoming a Modern Man:

     The lights went down. And we blew the roof off the place.

   • 2022, P.P. Arnold, Soul Survivor: The Autobiography:

     It was the most beautiful concert hall I had ever seen. It seated 1,000 people and had very sensitive acoustics, so when we hit the stage we blew the roof off the mother.

   • 28 March 2023, Graeme McGarry, “Scott McTominay earns place in history as Scotland stun Spain”, in The Herald‎^[1]:

     The captain’s pullback found McTominay arriving in support to finish past Kepa Arrizabalaga via a nick off Inigo Martinez and blow the roof off the national stadium.

2. To completely upset or excite people, generating a huge reaction.
   • 1821, Walter Scott, Kenilworth:

     "Thou wilt win no more Hollands, I think, on such wager, friend Mike," said the mercer; "for the sulky swain, Tony Foster, rails at thee all to nought, and swears you shall ne'er darken his doors again, for that your oaths are enough to blow the roof off a Christian man's dwelling."

   • 1956, Ammunition - Volume 14, page 6:

     On Harriman: "His main effort is aimed at using civil rights as an explosive issue to blow the roof off convention hall.

   • 1982, Dick Francis, Forfeit, page 197:

     "Make that piece good," he said. "Blow the roof off."

   • 1993, Harry S. Truman, quoted in John M. G. Brown, Moscow Bound: Policy, Politics, and the POW/MIA Dilemma, page 357:

     I read your report with care last night. It is very valuable to me – but if it leaked it would blow the roof off the White House , it would blow the roof off the Kremlin . We'd have the most serious situation on our hands that has yet occurred in my Administration.

   • 2021, Aaron Lecklider, Love's Next Meeting, page 188:

     At a recent service, “I blew the roof off the Temple,” Bergman wrote. I went off on a discussion of Lesbians, Homosexuals, and all people who are assigned to ghettos by the smug, complacent, dominating bourgeois Babbitts of the middle class, who cover their vicious subtle vices by condemning others who differ from them, as a means of warding off judgement and guilt from themselves. Spontaneious reaction should be "So What"– to realization of emotional differences among people. A person is a Lesbian or a Homosexual or this or that– "So What." And that blew the roof off!

3. To react with great excitement; to go wild.
   • 1987, Bric-a-brac, page 113:

     Rogerson told co-captains Kevin Armstrong and Ned Elton to "say whatever you want, just make sure they're so fired up tomorrow they blow the roof off the locker room."

   • 2013, Gary Clark, Dance of the Bull Rider:

     “Let's get ready for the most dangerous sport in rodeo,” the announcer yelled over the PA system and the crowd almost blew the roof off the arena yellin' and stompin' their feet.

   • 2015, Robert Coover, The Universal Baseball Association, Inc.:

     And the fans blew the roof off. They leaped the wall, slid down the dugout roofs, overran the cops, flooded in from the outfield bleachers, threw hats and scorecards into the air.

4. To react violently; to throw a fit.
   • 1944, Journals of the House of Commons of Canada - Volume 84, page 1168:

     Mr. McGeer: You do not need to blow the roof off.

   • 1955, The Journal - Institute of Journalists - Volume 43, page 95:

     Like any editor, he likes facts put down simply, accurately, with initials, names, and dates, and will blow the roof off if he has to miss a good story because of any omissions.

   • 2022, Emily Bex, The Medici Queen:

     She fucking blew the roof off with her bitching about you and Jacks.

5. To violently disrupt.
   • 1990, Canada. Parliament. Senate, Debates of the Senate: Official Report (Hansard), page 3627:

     As Father Jimmy Tompkins, one of Father Coady's associates once pointed out, "...the little people together is a giant. You've got to give them ideas, then they'll blow the roof off.”

   • 2001, The Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, page 7:

     We decided to blow the roof off the situation in order to bring about a more civilized market.

6. To be extremely loud.
   • 1982, Harry Kessler, Alma Kessler, Robert A. Suhosky, The Millionaire Referee, page 218:

     The volume of the yelling, screaming noise was certain to blow the roof off the stadium !

   • 1998, Lawrence J. Magid, Darcy DiNucci, The Little PC Book, page 43:

     Sound cards come with all computers right now, and the one in your computer will probably do the job for you unless you're a hard-core gamer looking to blow the roof off with your sound effects.

7. To exceed a record by a very large margin.
   • 2013, Christopher Vickers, Avenging Angels, page 171:

     You two blew the roof off of the correspondence average long before you blew the roof from the galactic averages.

8. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see blow,‎ roof,‎ off.