blow to kingdom come

English

WOTD – 31 January 2021

Etymology

From blow (“to cause to explode, shatter, or be utterly destroyed”) + to + kingdom come (“place that one will go to after one’s death, afterlife; death; state of complete annihilation; heaven or paradise”). Kingdom come is derived from the phrase “Thy kingdom come” from the Lord’s Prayer which is recorded in Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4 in the Bible:^[1] see, for example, Matthew 6:10 in the King James Version (spelling modernized): “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, in earth, as it is in heaven.”^[2] By these sentences, Jesus seeks the establishment of the rule of God the Father over the Earth in the future.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbləʊ tə ˌkɪŋdəm ˈkʌm/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbloʊ tə ˌkɪŋdəm ˈkʌm/, [-ɾə-]
Audio (General Australian): (file)
Rhymes: -ʌm
Hyphenation: blow to king‧dom come

Verb

blow to kingdom come (third-person singular simple present blows to kingdom come, present participle blowing to kingdom come, simple past blew to kingdom come, past participle blown to kingdom come)

(transitive, idiomatic) To totally destroy (something); to annihilate or wipe out (something).
- 1966 January 13, Lorenzo Semple Jr., “Smack in the Middle”, in Robert Butler, director, Batman, season 1, episode 2, spoken by Batman (Adam West), via American Broadcasting Company:
  If this gas ignites, it'll blow you to kingdom come, you venal viper!
- 1976, Jacques Levy, Bob Dylan (lyrics and music), “Joey”, in Desire, performed by Bob Dylan:
  The hostages were trembling when they heard a man exclaim / “Let’s blow this place to kingdom come, let Con Edison take the blame”

Translations

to totally destroy (something) — see also annihilate,‎ wipe out

French: démolir (fr), mettre en pièces (fr), ruiner (fr)
German: ins Jenseits befördern (of a person), ausradieren (de) (of an object)
Polish: zetrzeć z powierzchni ziemi
Russian: стереть с лица земли (ru) (steretʹ s lica zemli)

References

^ “kingdom come, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2017; “kingdom come, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
^ The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 1611, →OCLC, Matthew 6:10, column 2: “Thy kingdome come. Thy will be done, in earth, as it is in heauen.”