Blow over means to pass, fade or lose force, whether the subject is a storm or a scandal. To use blow over in a sentence, make the weather or the trouble the subject: “The criticism eventually blew over.” The verb is intransitive, so it never takes an object.
Blow over at a glance
- Blow over is an intransitive phrasal verb with the forms blow, blows, blowing, blew and blown.
- It takes no object: a storm or an argument blows over by itself.
- The two senses are weather that clears and trouble that loses its force.
- The particle never moves, so the verb is not separable.
- It belongs to neutral speech, news and narrative rather than to formal contracts.
What does blow over mean?
Blow over is a phrasal verb meaning that a storm passes and clears, or that a difficult situation loses its power and is forgotten. The Cambridge entry for blow over records both uses, and the link between them is the idea of something moving on rather than stopping abruptly.
| Sense | Plain meaning | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| Weather | A storm passes and the sky clears | The squall blew over by mid-afternoon. |
| Trouble | A dispute loses force and is forgotten | The argument blew over after a week. |
| Public feeling | Anger or scandal fades with time | The uproar over the rule blew over quickly. |
One limitation is worth stating plainly: blow over means a problem fades on its own, not that it was solved. A dispute that is settled by agreement is resolved, and a storm that stops and returns has only paused, so the verb would overstate both. The two senses also differ in how the subject behaves: weather simply moves on, which is why the past tense suits a report of last week’s storm, while trouble fades because attention moves elsewhere, which is why the verb so often appears in the future or in advice. A sentence such as the fuss will blow over promises time rather than effort, and that promise is the heart of the idiom.
How do you use blow over in a sentence?
Blow over is intransitive and inseparable: the subject is the thing that passes, and no object may follow. The particle stays fixed, so the storm blew over is correct while the storm blew the argument over is not.
| Pattern | Example | What it signals |
|---|---|---|
| subject + blow over | The storm blew over. | The simplest form; the subject does the passing. |
| subject + blow over + time phrase | The row blew over after a week. | Adds how long the fading took. |
| soon / eventually + blow over | The scandal will eventually blow over. | Marks patience rather than action. |
| let + object + blow over | They let the fuss blow over. | The only common structure with a second noun. |
| before + subject + blows over | Act before the matter blows over. | Urges a decision while attention lasts. |
When a problem shrinks, subside is the closer verb for a slow calming, and abate fits weather and noise that weaken.
Blow over in a sentence: examples across contexts
Blow over moves easily from weather to public life. The ten sentences below show the same intransitive pattern doing different work, from a playground to a news bulletin.
| Context | Example sentence | Why this works |
|---|---|---|
| Classroom | The storm blew over before the sports lesson began. | Concrete weather keeps the verb literal. |
| Family | The quarrel blew over and everyone forgot it. | The trouble sense in an everyday scene. |
| News report | The row over the levy blew over within a month. | Public feeling as the subject, with a time frame. |
| Politics | Ministers hoped the gaffe would blow over by polling day. | A hopeful future form with a deadline. |
| Business writing | The pricing backlash blew over once the discount appeared. | Names the moment the fading began. |
| Narrative | By morning the wind had blown over and the sea lay flat. | Past perfect places it before another event. |
| Sports commentary | The injury scare blew over after a scan. | Short-lived worry as the subject. |
| Workplace | Let the complaint blow over before you reply. | Uses the let something structure for patience. |
| Advice | Most of these panics blow over in a few days. | Present generic for a recurring pattern. |
| Conversation | It will all blow over, so do not worry. | The reassuring use in speech. |
| Weather forecast | Forecasters expect the gale to blow over by dawn. | The literal sense with a clear time frame. |
| Public relations | The brand hoped the backlash would blow over before the launch. | The trouble sense inside a corporate plan. |
The subject is the real signal. When the subject is weather, the sentence is literal and needs no gloss; when it is a row, a scandal or a fear, the reader supplies the idea of time passing. That is why the same three words can sit in a shipping forecast and in a boardroom memo without any change in form, and why the verb survives in both registers.
Blow over vs blow up, blow out and subside
Blow over shares its base verb with blow up and blow out, and it shares its meaning of calming with subside. The table keeps the four apart.
| Verb | Core idea | Transitive? | Typical subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| blow over | A storm or trouble passes and fades | No | A storm, a row, a scandal |
| blow up | Explode, inflate or suddenly worsen | Often | A tyre, a balloon, an argument |
| blow out | Extinguish or burst outward | Often | A candle, a tyre, a match |
| subside | Calm down slowly | No | Flood water, noise, anger |
Verdict: choose blow over when trouble fades by itself, blow up when something bursts or worsens, blow out when something is extinguished or bursts outward, and subside for a slow, steady calming. A useful test is to ask whether time alone will settle the matter: if it will, blow over is right, and if a person must act, choose resolve or settle, because blow over never implies that anyone did anything.
Word forms and grammar of blow over
Blow over uses the irregular forms of blow, and the past participle is the one learners miss. Where a mood settles into calm, settle can replace the second half of the meaning.
| Form | Part of speech | Example |
|---|---|---|
| blow over | phrasal verb, base | The storm should blow over soon. |
| blows over | phrasal verb, third person | The fuss usually blows over. |
| blowing over | phrasal verb, present participle | The tide is blowing over at last. |
| blew over | phrasal verb, past | The row blew over overnight. |
| blown over | phrasal verb, past participle | The matter has blown over. |
| blow over it | non-standard order | Correct to let it blow over. |
Because the verb is intransitive, the only common way to add a second noun is the let something blow over frame, which keeps the passing thing as a subject rather than an object. The past participle is also the form that appears in perfect tenses, as in the matter has blown over, the sentence a manager uses when a decision can finally be made. Learners who write has blew over confuse the past with the participle, and that error is the one to watch.
Common mistakes with blow over
- Incorrect:
The manager blew over the complaint.Correct: The manager let the complaint blow over. Rule: Blow over is intransitive, so it cannot take a direct object. - Incorrect:
They blew the scandal over.Correct: The scandal blew over. Rule: The trouble is the subject, and the particle stays fixed. - Incorrect:
The problem was blown over by the team.Correct: The problem blew over. Rule: An intransitive verb has no passive, because there is no object to promote. - Incorrect:
The meeting blew over at noon.Correct: The storm blew over at noon. Rule: The subject must be something that can pass or fade, not a fixed event.
Practice using blow over
Work through the six items, then read the reasons rather than only the answers.
- Fill the gap: The argument will ______ once everyone calms down.
- Choose the better word: The tyre (blew over / blew out) on the motorway.
- Correct the error: She blew over the misunderstanding with a short call.
- Build a sentence: use blow over about a worry that fades by the next morning.
- Spot the register: which belongs in a news report — the row blew over within a month, or chill, it will blow over?
- Rewrite in the past: The storm blows over before dusk.
- Choose the better word: The noise (blew over / subsided) after the band stopped.
Answers
- blow over — the trouble fades on its own, so the intransitive verb fits.
- blew out — a tyre bursts outward, while blow over describes weather or trouble.
- The misunderstanding blew over — blow over takes no object, so no one can blow it over.
- Model answer: The worry blew over by the next morning.
- The first sentence belongs in a news report — it is neutral, while chill is conversational.
- The storm blew over before dusk — blow has the irregular past blew.
- subsided — noise calms gradually with subside, while blow over suits weather or trouble.
The bottom line
Use blow over in a sentence when a storm or a trouble passes and fades on its own. The two facts that decide most sentences are these: the verb is intransitive, so the thing that passes must be the subject, and it is inseparable, so the particle never moves. Where a problem is settled by decision rather than by time, settle or fade describes the outcome more exactly. Nothing in the verb says the trouble was fair or unfair; it only says that attention, and with it the trouble, moved on.
Frequently asked questions about blow over
Is blow over separable?
No. The particle stays fixed in place, so the sentence is the storm blew over rather than the storm blew over it. Because the verb is intransitive, there is no object to move the particle around, and the order never changes.
What kind of subject does blow over take?
The subject is whatever passes or fades, such as a storm, a row, a scandal or a worry. It must be something that can lose force over time. A fixed event such as a meeting cannot blow over, because nothing about it is fading.
Can a scandal blow over on its own?
Yes, that is exactly what the verb claims. Blow over says the trouble loses its force with time rather than being solved. If a company instead answers the criticism and ends it, that is resolved or settled, not blown over.
What is the past tense of blow over?
The past tense is blew over and the past participle is blown over. Blow is irregular, so it does not add ed. You write the matter blew over last week and the matter has blown over, and the form blowed over is never correct in any sentence.
