A war that destroys a culture or the vast majority of a population. Often cap.
- 1945 L. Padgett Beggars in Velvet Astounding S-F (Dec.) № 14/2: After the Blowup, the fringes of the radioactive areas had caused the mutations of which the telepaths were the only survivors, aside from the occasional monsters — reptiles and harmless beasts — that still lived near the blasted areas.
- 1946 L. Padgett Time Enough Astounding SF № 127/2 Dec.: Had the Blowup been due only to the atomic blast, man might have rebuilt more easily, granting that the planet remained habitable.
- 1947 J. Speer It's Up to Us Fancestral Voices (2004) № 188: Little leisure can be seen in the post-Blowup world.
- 1949 F. Brown Letter to Phoenix Angels & Spaceships (1954) № 104: It's not like a blow-up war, when nine-tenths or more of the population of Earth — or of Earth and the other planets — is killed.
