Learn English – What does “blow on” mean

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What does "blow on" mean in the following sentence?

(this is a part of a humourous book that a nine_year_old boy is talking about his mother, I mean it is supposed to be funny)

Mom said we would be late for our reservation and that I didn't know who she had to blow on to get the reservation

I'm a little confused with answers so :

  • Does it mean:

    1. defame and discredit or

    2. is it vulgar and figurative, referring to a sexual act to imply going to great lengths to get something done or

    3. is it a phrasal verb for expressing your stress

Best Answer

To blow a man is to perform fellatio on him. To "blow on" someone is simply to release a puff or stream of air between your lips in that person's direction from a point of close proximity. There are three jokes here:

  1. The mother probably said "you don't know whom I had to blow to get the reservation," humorously implying that the only way she could get the reservation is by exchanging a sexual favor. (Well, it's more likely that she said "who I had to blow", but hey, I'm pedantic.) It's not uncommon to make that sort of jokey comment. For example, if I obtain a rare, out of print book for a friend who very much wanted but couldn't find it, I might say "I had to blow the previous owner to get it."

  2. It's possible that the mother deliberately says "blow on" instead of "blow" to avoid the sexual meaning in conversation with the nine year old. Or she did say "blow" but he does not get the sexual reference, and assumes she said "blow on". Either way, the idea of blowing on somebody is silly, of course, particularly in the context of using that action to get a favor. Part of the humor lies in this fact.

  3. Finally, the incongruity between the sexual nature of the actual statement and the innocent, silly understanding of the child provides another level of ironic humor.

Two notes in closing:

  • Do nine year olds really not know what blowing someone means? The author has a less cynical view of kids that age than I do, I suppose.

  • The term "blow" for fellatio is quite weird. An old joke involves one guy telling another: "Suck, you moron, suck; it's only called a blow job." An answer to this Quora question suggests that the name "blow job" itself started out as humorous, since it deliberately uses the opposite of suck to refer to an act that involves sucking.

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