blow up in one's face
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To have a plan or situation fail or backfire completely
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Có kế hoạch hoặc tình huống thất bại hoặc phản tác dụng hoàn toàn
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: an explosion occurring in close proximity
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
His scheme to cheat on the test blew up in his face when he got caught
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 up in one's face” mean?
To have a plan or situation fail or backfire completely Literally: an explosion occurring in close proximity
Is “blow up in one's face” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.