Blown out of the water

Posted by Know All May 06, 2004In reply to Blown out of the water posted by Patrick on May 04, 2004

According to the sources I have checked, to "blow someone out of the water" means to suprise someone greatly. But could it also mean to be far superior to someone? Like: "McDonalds is by far the biggest fast food chain. All other are completely blown out of the water by this giant."

All answers are greatly appreciated!

the imagery is from naval conflict - a big warship with powerful cannon would simply so outgun a smaller vessel that the smaller one could be blown (by explosion) clear of the water - the phrase connotes overwealming superiority of firepower. it has come to be used of any situation where one side wins a decisive victory - e.g. a person's legal proposition could be 'blown out of the water' by a decisive countering piece of case-law that left them in 'shock and awe' or a team scoring 9 goals in the first half of a football (soccer) match could 'blow them away' (it did - we scored 14 in total!)

blowing something (clear/clean) out of the water is simply an expression for an overwealmingly decisive engagement.