blow upon

English

Verb

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

1. To defame, discredit; make someone the subject of a scandal.
   • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur Book XX, Chapter xij, leaf 409r:

     And thenne syre Gawayne made many men to blowe vpon syr launcelot / And all at ones they called hym fals recreaunt knyght.
     "And then Sir Gawaine made many men to blow upon Sir Launcelot; and all at once they called him false recreant knight."

   • 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], “chapter 13”, in Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:

     'I'm afraid,' said the Jew, 'that he may say something which will get us into trouble.'
     'That's very likely,' returned Sikes with a malicious grin. 'You're blowed upon, Fagin.'

2. (informal, dated) To inform against.
   • 1811, Charles Lamb, On the Tragedies of Shakespeare Considered with Reference to their Fitness for Stage Representation:

     How far the very custom of hearing anything spouted withers and blows upon a fine passage, may be seen in those speeches from [Shakespeare's] Henry V. which are current in the mouths of schoolboys.

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 3, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     a lady's maid whose character had been blown upon

   • 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities:

     If it wos so, which I still don't say it is (for I will not prewaricate to you, sir), let that there boy keep his father's place, and take care of his mother; don't blow upon that boy's father — do not do it, sir — and let that father go into the line of the reg'lar diggin', and make amends for what he would have undug […]

3. To take the bloom or freshness off something.

References

• Blown upon - E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898 - hosted at bartleby.com