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Phrase: Blowing someone off

Posted by Bob on June 13, 2000

In Reply to: Phrase: Blowing someone off posted by John Bailey on June 13, 2000

: I posted this question two months ago and didn't get a response. It is not on the search the archives of the discussion group anymore either.

: This is a phrase I hear more and more in public in America. I want to know how it meaning has totally changed in the last twenty years, when you could say such a thing in public. I'm sick of hearing it.

While public discourse has gotten immeasurably more vulgar, this particular phrase is not guilty. Think of blowing dust off a book, or blowing off a feather that lands on your shoulder. This is the sense of lightly getting rid of someone of no importance. Discarding a person not worthy of your attention. (Come to think of it, that IS vulgar.)

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