English is not my native language.
I’m wondering what the expressen “blow one’s top” means, as in Bob Dylan’s Highlands:
If I had a conscience, well I just might blow my top
What would I do with it anyway
Maybe take it to the pawn shop
At first I thought it meant “o shoot oneself” but googling it seams to be “losing one’s temper”, but I’m not sure, and can’t find a translation.
Thanks.
To lose your temper would be a good translation. Like a volcano that explodes.
Exactly. To erupt angrily would be another one.
Also sometime “blow my stack” like a steam boiler that overpressures.
And while you’re learning about some English expression to “boil over” is another one along the same lines.
In older blues songs, it’s also a euphemism for male ejaculation. From “Sixty Minute Man”:
Wow! Is that humanly possible? A 15 minute ejaculation?
The expression would be more like this.
“Don’t blow your top.”
“Susan blew her top.”
“Don’t blow your lid.”
“Don’t blow a gasket.”
All refer to a container under steam pressure, like a pressure cooker on a hot fire. A pressure cooker that fails will cover everything in the room with food. Nothing is uneffected by the explosion. Someone that blows their top does not care who is around, everyone is a target for their anger.
Thank you all very much!
/Wakinyan