[f. BLOW v.1 Not certainly found bef. 17th c., which separates it from BLOW sb.1]
1. A blowing; a blast.
a. of the wind. To get a blow: to expose oneself to the action of a fresh breeze.
1660. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 8/1. The overflowing of the Nilus is caused by the Etesian (yearly) winds … beginning the blow from the North.
1777. W. Dalrymple, Trav. Sp. & Port., 43–4. He goes out a sporting every day of the year, rain or blow.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, iv. 8. The first blow that I had seen which could really be called a gale.
1857. R. Tomes, Amer. in Japan, i. 31. The Mississippi, in doubling the Cape of Good Hope in midsummer, escaped any very heavy blow, although hardly a week passes without a gale from some quarter.
Mod. colloq. Went down to Gravesend by the steamer to get a blow.
b. of whales.
a. 1851. J. F. Cooper, in Casquet Lit. (1877), V. 211/1. There is the blow of a whale.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxxix. (1856), 359. It had more of voice mingled with its sibilant ‘blow’ than I had ever heard.
c. of a wind-instrument; of the nose.
1723. Steele, Consc. Lovers, I. i. (1735), 16. You went to dinner … when the great Blow was given in the Hall at the Pantry-door.
1835. Marryat, Jac. Faithf., iii. The astonishing effects of a blow from Domine Dobiensis’s sonorous and peace-restoring nose.
1849. Dickens, Dav. Copp., v. ‘Have a blow at it [a flute],’ said the old woman coaxingly.
† d. of gunpowder, or other explosive. Obs.
1694. Lond. Gaz., No. 2994/3. Hearing some guns go off first, and presently after several Blows.
1720. Stow’s Surv. (ed. Strype, 1754), I. II. iii. 375/2. This Church was … ruined by a lamentable Blow of 27 Barrels of Gunpowder.
2. fig. A boast; vaunting, boastfulness.
1684. Roxb. Ball. (1885), V. 464. They followed their blows, In Musick and Gaming, and acting of Shows.
1883. 19th Cent., Nov., 848. Colonial blow, bounce, and impudence.
3. The oviposition of flesh-flies or other insects.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XIX. 24. I much fear lest with the blows of flies His brass-inflicted wounds are fild.
1875. Houghton, Sk. Brit. Insects, 114. By depositing its eggs (fly-blows). [cf. FLY-BLOW.]
4. Metallurgy. ‘A single heat or operation of the Bessemer converter’ (Raymond, Mining Gloss., 1881); also the quantity of metal dealt with at a single operation.
1883. Daily News, 20 Sept., 2/1. Instead of blows of three or four tons, we have now to deal with twelve to fifteen tons.
