Blow-by-blow account is an idiom that is taken from the field of sports. We will examine the meaning of the common saying blow-by-blow account, where it came from, and some examples of its idiomatic usage in sentences.
A blow-by-blow account describes an event in sequential order and in meticulous detail. A blow-by-blow account does not leave out any information and is a true and accurate report. The expression blow-by-blow account came into use in the 1920s and is an American idiom. The phrase was first used when reporting on the sport of boxing to mean a report about each blow landed in the bout. The phrase blow-by-blow account was quickly adopted into everyday English to mean a detailed recounting of any event. Note that blow-by-blow is hyphenated, because it is an adjective that appears before a noun.
Examples
McNeil has been mum on the allegations since his resignation last month but published his blow-by-blow account on Monday, the day he formally left the paper. (New York Post)
In a blow-by-blow account in April, for instance, the Times reported that “throughout January, as Mr. Trump repeatedly played down the seriousness of the virus,” both “top White House advisers” and experts in Cabinet departments and intelligence agencies were telling him the lethal facts and sounding constant alarms. (New York Magazine)
“We are not going to give a blow-by-blow account of what negotiators are working towards.” (Reuters)
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