blow a gasket

verb

"blow-a-gasket" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“blow a gasket” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To become very angry or upset.

Corpus desk

Index EN-blow-a-gasket · blow a gasket · English

blow a gasket · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "B" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for blow a gasket
PropertyValue
Headwordblow a gasket
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “blow a gasket” in English

blow a gasketfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

blow a gasket is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for blow a gasket in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is blow a gasket, spelled B-L-O-W- -A- -G-A-S-K-E-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    To become very angry or upset.
  2. 2
    Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see blow, gasket. To cause the seal made by a gasket to fail.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how blow a gasket appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Jack blew a gasket when he saw his son's poor report card.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "blow a gasket"?
"blow a gasket" is spelled B-L-O-W- -A- -G-A-S-K-E-T.
What does "blow a gasket" mean?
As a verb, "blow a gasket" means: To become very angry or upset.
What language does "blow a gasket" come from?
"blow a gasket" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list