blow one's stack

Example: “Dad blew his stack when he saw the dent in the car.”

Origin: Draws on steam-powered machinery, particularly steamships and factory boilers, whose smokestacks vented excess pressure through a chimney designed for exactly that purpose. Before reliable pressure-release valves existed, a stack that had become blocked or overloaded could fail catastrophically instead of venting safely, rupturing all at once in a sudden, violent release after building up pressure invisibly for some time — a close physical match for someone whose composure gives way all at once after visibly building tension. The idiom is American slang, generally dated to the early 20th century, describing the sudden loss of temper the same overloaded system experiences when it finally gives way.