popped airlock

my airlock popped out of the gallon batch of IPA i was fermenting do to heavy "yeasting" and improper sizing. I'm not sure how long it was like this, a couple of minutes or a couple of days. What kind of punishment will i expect from my poor performance? When people say "contaminated" do they mean it will make people sick for real, or just sick from tasting such a mis-flavoured beer?

I think contaminated means that airborn bacteria and wild yeast have floated their way into the neck and grown in your poor exposed partialy fermented beer. If you have contaminated beer it will smell and / or taste BAD. You will know.
Just make sure you replace the airlock with one that has been sanitised and cross your fingers. You will know in a week or two.

I tried a two piece type airlock in my 6 gallon primary for my Vanilla Cream Ale. It blew out, probably sat for a day before I found it and replaced it. It was still krausening like crazy, so I didn't get overly worried. Never again. I'll always use a blow off hose for my primaries. But, when I bottled it last week, it tasted marvelous. I think as long as the heavy fermentation is still occuring and you have the huge CO2 spewing head on it, nothing is really going to get in.