blow to smithereens

cliché "Smithereens," first appearing in English in 1829 as "smiddereens," is likely derived from the Irish word smidirín or smidiríní, meaning "fragment."

1. To be smashed or blasted into tiny, fragmentary pieces. The soldiers detonated the explosives and watched the vehicle blow to smithereens. The gunpowder stored below somehow ignited, and the entire ship blew to smithereens. A: "Do the authorities have any idea why the house just blew to smithereens?" B: "They think a gas leak was part of the problem."

2. To smash or blast someone or something into tiny pieces. In this usage, a noun or pronoun is used between "blow" and "to." The demolition crew blew the building to smithereens in a matter of seconds. The typhoon's gale-force winds have been blowing the village to smithereens over the last few days. I've heard there are still landmines around here, so we'll have to be careful. One wrong step will blow us to smithereens!

blow(n) to smithereens

Smash, destroy. Again, blow here means “explode,” and smithereens probably means “little smithers,” a dialect word thought to mean “bits” or “pieces.” The term was appealing enough to be used often from the early nineteenth century on, even by that great wordsmith James Joyce (“Crew and cargo in smithereens,” in Ulysses, 1922).