Used to describe something going wrong or breaking suddenly; something that goes awry or malfunctions.
Variant of 'blooie,' likely from onomatopoeia or slang origin, possibly related to the 'poof' or 'whoosh' sound of something failing. This informal term became popular in early 20th-century American slang.
American slang is full of made-up-sounding words that fill real gaps—'blooey' captures the sense of sudden catastrophic failure better than any standard word, which is why it survived from the 1920s to today.
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