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“Blow out of the water” is an idiom that means to overwhelmingly defeat an opponent, originating from naval warfare in WWII. It is commonly used in sports and other competitive situations, but can be confusing for non-native speakers due to its figurative meaning.
“Blow out of the water” is an idiom that means to defeat an opponent overwhelmingly. The term is not used to describe a narrow victory, it is only used to describe a victory of monumental proportions. Most commonly found in discussions of military engagements and sporting contests, the term has its origins in naval warfare.
In WWII, naval warfare and munitions reached the point where ships, especially submarines, had such destructive weapons and delivery systems that when they hit a target, they sometimes literally exploded out of the water. The phrase appeared in battle reports and newspaper accounts and soon came to symbolize a landslide victory. The term was particularly applicable to sporting contests that ended in asymmetrical victories.
Idioms are terms or phrases that cannot be understood with a strict definition of their component words. “Blow out of the water” or its variations are easily understood when used to describe the outcome of a naval battle: “HMAS Canberra was blown out of the water by the Japanese task force”. It would be impossible for someone to understand its usage in a different context, though, without a native speaker’s understanding of the idiom. For example, “the defense blew up the district attorney’s case” will confuse most non-native speakers.
This particular idiom presents an additional challenge for the non-native speaker: it is rarely expressed as “blowing out of the water”. Instead, it is more frequently used in the past tense, to describe an event that has already occurred. For example, a sports report might read, “Town baseball team blew up visiting team.” It could also be used in the present tense as a threat or prediction: “We’ll blow them out of the water!”
Sports is the most common arena where the idiom can be found in modern usage, but it can be applied to any competitive situation. “The dark horse candidate blew up the incumbent in last weekend’s debate,” might aptly describe a political confrontation. “New department store moved into town and blew up the trendy little boutiques just off the water,” would similarly describe a trend in a city’s business district. And in the field of modern communication, “This new app blows all others out of the water!”
US General George Patton is quoted as saying, “Besides war, all other forms of human endeavor dwindle to insignificance.” He often sees wartime as providing the environment within which technological and medical advances are made that ultimately benefit humanity in peace. It is fitting, therefore, that the terms and phrases used to describe actual events in war also become the foundation of the idioms used to describe the less lethal competitions that characterize peacetime.
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