blow his lid

[vil]

Dear teachers,

Not long ago I read a few sentences with a new for me idiom, namely:

"My father blew his lid when I had an accident with his car."
"Peters' father blew his lid when he heard about his poor grades."
"Sweet Lou blew his lid yesterday. Even though I lost my bet I was close though. I thought he'd have his first out burst after the 10th game."
"New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan blew his lid at the media on Wednesday, taking exception to a question by one journalist regarding his comments earlier in the week about teammate Plaxico Burnen."

In the first two examples, which were from a grammar-test (about.com) I
grasped the meaning of the expression "blow his lid" as " become very angry".

I know so far, that:

blow a fuse = to explode with anger
blow one's mind = to affect whit intense emotion,such as amazment, excitement, or shock.
blow one's top = to lose one's temper

I know that there are another expression as:

take your lid / flip your lid = to become crazy

or

blow /take off the lid off something= to cause something bad that was previously kept secret to be known by the public

or

blow the lid off , also blow wide open = expose, especially a scandal or illegal activity

Would you tel me whether this idiom "blow his lid" is a common occurrence in English language? Does it is a body idiom or "lid" is a cover or a top in this case?

Thank you in advance for your efforts.

V.

[Anglika]

It is fairly common and is a euphemism for becoming very angry, derived from the way in which the lid of a pan can be raised with the force of steam from the boiling contents.

[vil]

Hi Anglika,

Thank you very much for the confirmation that I could use this idiom as well as for the descriptive interpretation of its meaning.

Regards.

V.