Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • interjection Used to indicate an explosion.
  • idiom (go kablooey) To explode.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun colloquial Alternative spelling of kablooie.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[ka-, intensive pref. (probably from Scots ker-) + blooey, sound of an explosion (of imitative origin).]

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Examples

  • Wednesdayt, Hollywood "big-budget kablooey" exploded in downtown Washington with a pyrotechnics display for the third installment of the Transformers movie, "Transformers: The Dark of the Moon."

    Transform the 'Transformers'-in-D.C. photo Melissa Bell 2010

  • Most weeks, Sue's story line has gone something like this: Trash Will's buttery hair, hatch a plan to make the glee club go kablooey, watch said plan go kablooey instead, resolve to do better next time.

    Glee Finale: 7 Things We Want to See Happen Next Season 2011

  • If contractors really want to do the most professional job they can -- a goal that may be problematic for some of them -- they could and should receive the various lessons learned reports government personnel have been compiling for years as they reflect on why so many reconstruction projects went kablooey.

    David Isenberg: Miles to Go David Isenberg 2011

  • And then, around 10: 45 pm., things went kablooey.

    'Transformers 3' blows up the Mall -- but only briefly The Reliable Source 2010

  • Resulting in the same kablooey effect as the previous two.

    Galactica Spaceship | SciFi, Fantasy & Horror Collectibles 2009

  • If contractors really want to do the most professional job they can -- a goal that may be problematic for some of them -- they could and should receive the various lessons learned reports government personnel have been compiling for years as they reflect on why so many reconstruction projects went kablooey.

    David Isenberg: Miles to Go David Isenberg 2011

  • We start each day with a color-coded terror alert to let us know how likely we are to go kablooey and drive past highway signs urging us to report suspicious activity.

    Forget the terrorists - it's Metro escalators that should strike fear in your heart Post 2010

  • Obviously many people will say (not knowing a thing about this guy) that he got what was coming to him because he oversaw the exploratory drilling operation, and it went catastrophically kablooey, and then BP didn't have a ready fix, and the gulf got polluted, and the birds and turtles died, and so on.

    BP fires someone you never heard of Joel Achenbach 2010

  • We start each day with a color-coded terror alert to let us know how likely we are to go kablooey and drive past highway signs urging us to report suspicious activity.

    Forget the terrorists - it's Metro escalators that should strike fear in your heart Post 2010

  • He put on the collar and everything went kablooey.

    My Fair Succubi Jill Myles 2011

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