different between blow vs impact

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bl??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /blo?/
• Rhymes: -??

Etymology 1

From Middle English blowen, from Old English bl?wan (“to blow, breathe, inflate, sound”), from Proto-West Germanic *bl?an, from Proto-Germanic *bl?an? (“to blow”) (compare German blähen), from Proto-Indo-European *b?leh?- (“to swell, blow up”) (compare Latin fl? (“to blow”) and Old Armenian ?????? (be?un, “fertile”)).

Verb

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

1. (intransitive) To produce an air current.
   • 1653, Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler

     Hark how it rains and blows!

2. (transitive) To propel by an air current.

3. (intransitive) To be propelled by an air current.

4. (transitive) To create or shape by blowing; as in to blow bubbles, to blow glass.
5. To force a current of air upon with the mouth, or by other means.

6. To clear of contents by forcing air through.

7. (transitive) To cause to make sound by blowing, as a musical instrument.
8. (intransitive) To make a sound as the result of being blown.
9. (intransitive, of a cetacean) To exhale visibly through the spout the seawater which it has taken in while feeding.
10. (intransitive) To explode.

11. (transitive, with "up" or with prep phrase headed by "to") To cause to explode, shatter, or be utterly destroyed.

12. (transitive) To cause sudden destruction of.

13. (intransitive) To suddenly fail destructively.

14. (intransitive) (used to express displeasure or frustration) Damn.
15. (intransitive, slang, sometimes considered vulgar) To be very undesirable.

    Synonym: suck

16. (transitive, slang) To recklessly squander.

17. (transitive, vulgar) To fellate; to perform oral sex on (usually a man)

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:give head

18. (transitive, slang) To leave, especially suddenly or in a hurry.

19. To make flyblown, to defile, especially with fly eggs.
20. (obsolete) To spread by report; to publish; to disclose.

    • Through the court his courtesy was blown.

21. (obsolete) To inflate, as with pride; to puff up.
22. (intransitive) To breathe hard or quick; to pant; to puff.
23. (transitive) To put out of breath; to cause to blow from fatigue.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir Walter Scott to this entry?)

24. (dated) To talk loudly; boast; storm.
    • a. 1940, Mildred Haun, "Shin-Bone Rocks" in The Hawk's Done Gone p. 218:

      He didn't just set around and try to out sweettalk somebody; he got out and out-fit somebody. He wouldn't be blowing when he told his boys how he fit for the woman he got.

    • 1969, Charles Ambrose McCarthy, The Great Molly Maguire Hoax (page 113)

      At the breaking edge with him and completely fed up with his everlasting bragging and blowing about his personal exploits, and desirous of putting him somewhere, anywhere, so they wouldn't be continuously annoyed by him, […]

    • 1976, David Toulmin, Blown Seed (page 148)

      Audie never liked him because he was further in with old Craig than he was, bragging and blowing about his work and the things he could do, while Audie sat quiet as a mouse listening to his blab.

25. (slang, informal, African-American Vernacular) To sing.

26. (Scientology, intransitive) To leave the Church of Scientology in an unauthorized manner.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

blow (plural blows)

1. A strong wind.

2. (informal) A chance to catch one’s breath.

3. (uncountable, US, slang) Cocaine.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:cocaine
4. (uncountable, Britain, slang) Cannabis.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:marijuana

5. (uncountable, US Chicago Regional, slang) Heroin.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:heroin

6. (informal, vulgar) A blowjob; fellatio

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:oral sex

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English blo, bloo, from Old English bl?w (“blue”), from Proto-Germanic *bl?waz (“blue, dark blue, grey, black”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?l?w- (“yellow, blond, grey”). Cognate with Latin flavus (“yellow”). Doublet of blue.

Adjective

blow (comparative blower or more blow, superlative blowest or most blow)

2. (now chiefly dialectal, Northern England) Blue.

Etymology 3

From Middle English blowe, blaw, northern variant of bl?we, from Proto-Germanic *blewwan? (“to beat”) (compare Old Norse blegði (“wedge”), German bläuen, Middle Dutch blouwen). Related to block.

Noun

blow (plural blows)

1. The act of striking or hitting.

   Synonyms: bace, strike, hit, punch

2. A sudden or forcible act or effort; an assault.
   • 1838-1842', Thomas Arnold, History of Rome

     A vigorous blow might win [Hanno's camp].

3. A damaging occurrence.

   Synonyms: disaster, calamity
4. (Australia, shearing, historical) A cut made to a sheep's fleece by a shearer using hand-shears.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 4

From Middle English blowen, from Old English bl?wan, from Proto-Germanic *bl?an? (compare Dutch bloeien, German blühen), from Proto-Indo-European *b?leh?- (compare Latin flor?re (“to bloom”)).

Verb

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

1. To blossom; to cause to bloom or blossom.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 4 Scene 1

     You seem to me as Dian in her orb,

     As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown;

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 5

     How blows the citron grove.

Related terms

• full-blown

Translations

Noun

blow (plural blows)

1. A mass or display of flowers; a yield.
2. A display of anything brilliant or bright.
3. A bloom, state of flowering.

Related terms

• ablow
• elder-blow

Translations

Anagrams

• bowl

Middle English

Verb

blow

1. Alternative form of blowen (“to blow”)

English

Etymology

From Latin imp?ctus, perfect passive participle of imping? (“dash against, impinge”).

Pronunciation

• (noun): enPR: im?p?kt, IPA^(key): /??mpækt/
• (verb): enPR: im-p?kt?, IPA^(key): /?m?pækt/
• • Rhymes: -ækt

Noun

impact (countable and uncountable, plural impacts)

1. The striking of one body against another; collision.
2. The force or energy of a collision of two objects.

3. (chiefly medicine) A forced impinging.

4. A significant or strong influence; an effect.

Usage notes

• Adjectives often applied to "impact": social, political, physical, positive, negative, good, bad, beneficial, harmful, significant, great, important, strong, big, small, real, huge, likely, actual, potential, devastating, disastrous, true, primary.
• The adposition generally used with "impact" is "on" (such as in last example in section above)
• There are English speakers who are so averse to the verb sense that they have become hypersensitive to the use of the figurative noun sense, with a low threshold for labeling such use as overuse (cliché). In defensive editing, the solution is to replace the figurative noun sense with effect and the verb sense with affect, which nearly always produces an acceptable result. (Rarely, a phrase such as "the impact of late effects" is better stetted to avoid "the effect of [...] effects".)

Derived terms

Related terms

• impinge

Translations

Verb

impact (third-person singular simple present impacts, present participle impacting, simple past and past participle impacted)

1. (transitive) To collide or strike, the act of impinging.

   When the hammer impacts the nail, it bends.

2. (transitive) To compress; to compact; to press into something or pack together.

   The footprints of birds do not impact the soil in the way those of dinosaurs do.

3. (transitive, proscribed) To influence; to affect; to have an impact on.

   I can make the changes, but it will impact the schedule.

4. (transitive, rare) To stamp or impress onto something.

   Ideas impacted on the mind.

Usage notes

Some authorities object to the verb sense of impact meaning "to influence; to affect; to have an impact on". Although most verbification instances in English draw no prescriptive attention, a few do, including this one. To avoid annoying those readers who care, one can replace the verb sense with affect, which nearly always produces an acceptable result. See also the usage note for the noun sense.

Derived terms

• impaction
• impactor

Translations

French

Etymology

From Latin, see above.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.pakt/

Noun

impact m (plural impacts)

1. (literally or figuratively) impact

Further reading

• “impact” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Romanian

Etymology

From French impact, from Latin impactus.

Noun

impact n (plural impacturi)

1. impact

Declension