This paper deals with the blow-up solution to the following semilinear pseudo-parabolic equationin a bounded domain Ω ⊂ R n , which was studied by Luo (Math Method Appl Sci 38 (12):2636-2641, 2015) with the following assumptions on p:and the lifespan for the initial energy J(u 0 ) < 0 is considered. This paper generalizes the above results on the following two aspects:1. a new blow-up condition is given, which holds for all p > 1; 2. a new lifespan is given, which holds for all p > 1 and possible J(u 0 ) ≥ 0.Moreover, as a byproduct, we refine the lifespan when J(u 0 ) < 0. KEYWORDS blow-up, lifespan, semilinear pseudo-parabolic equation p+1 p+1Math Meth Appl Sci. 2018;41:705-713. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/mma