blow out of proportion

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Exaggerate or magnify something excessively

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

khuếch đại hoặc phóng đại một điều gì đó quá mức

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: inflate a problem beyond its true size
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The media blew the scandal out of proportion

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “blow out of proportion” mean?

Exaggerate or magnify something excessively Literally: inflate a problem beyond its true size

Is “blow out of proportion” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.