Blue Blazes.—See Blazes.
Blue Boar, subs. (old).—A certain venereal disease.
Blue-Bottle, subs. (popular).—1. A policeman. This epithet, at one time
applied generally to all wearers of a dark blue uniform, is now
invariably understood to mean a guardian of the peace. It is one of the
oldest of the nicknames given to members of the force, and occurs as
far back as 1598.
Cf., Blue, sense 1, and see Beak for synonyms.
1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., v., 4. Dall [addressing beadle] ...
you blue-bottle rogue, you filthy famished correctioner.
1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. lxiv. ‘Police, indeed!’
muttered Charley, ‘the General can’t remember that he is out of
London.... These confounded sulky Austrian officials are rather
different customers to deal with from our blue-bottles.—Messrs. Al
and Co.’
1864. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, Sept. 13. Caught in his own toils
by the blue-bottles of Scotland Yard, [M.]
1864. Blackwood’s Mag., p. 15. He who could summon to his aid every
alphabetical blue-bottle that ever handled a truncheon.
1888. Middleton, Michaelmas Term. And to be free from the
interruption of blue beadles, and other bawdy officers.
2. A serving-man, blue having been the usual habit of servants. Cf.,
Blue-coat.
1602. Honest Whore, O. Pl., iii., 389. You proud varlets, you need
not be ashamed to wear blue, when your master is one of your
fellows.
1608. Dekker, Belman, sign E., 3. The others act their parts in
blew coates, as (if) they were their serving-men.
Hence blue-bottle is sometimes a term of reproach for a servant. [Case
Altered, i., 2. O. Pl., v., 6.] And a serving-man, in B. Jonson, says,
‘Ever since I was of the blue order.’
About 1608, when Middleton’s Comedy of A Trick to catch the Old One was
produced, the blue-coats of servants appear to have been changed for
cloaks, such as were worn by the upper classes also at that time. Thus,
in that comedy [Act ii., Anc. Drama, v., p. 151]:—There’s more true
honesty in such a country serving man, than in a hundred of our cloak
companions. I may well call ’em companions, for since blue coats have
been turned into cloaks, one can scarce know the man from the master.
B. Jonson [Mask of Christmas] introduces New Yeares Gift, In a blew
coat, serving-man like, with an orange, etc.
1845. G. P. R. James, Arrah Neil, p. 325. The personage to whom he
addressed himself, was one of the serving-men of that day, known by
the general term of blue-bottles.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. x. (I., p. 173). I fancy you
would love to move to court like him, followed by a round score of
old blue-bottles. Ibid, ch. xi. My lord, my father ... has
blue-bottles enough to wait on him.
Blue Boy, subs. (common).—A bubo; a tumour or abscess with
inflammation. Specially applied to that kind which is a result of
venereal disease.
Blue-Boys, subs. (popular).—The police. The expression is generally
used in the plural. Cf., Blue, sense 1, and Beak, sense 1.
1880. Jas. Greenwood, Help Myself Society, in Odd People in Odd
Places, p. 68. The ‘Help Yourselves’ are especially strong in
instrumental music. They have a friend in Colonel Fraser, the head
of the City police, and the excellent band of that branch of the
force is at their service, and Sir E. Henderson shows himself to be
at heart a ‘Help Yourself,’ by permitting the instrumental blue
boys belonging to several metropolitan divisions to spend a
Saturday night there. Besides these, they have the Polytechnic
orchestral band when it is required, and an excellent grand piano
with a skilled player and accompanyist.
Blue Butter, subs. (common).—Mercurial ointment, used for the
destruction of parasites.
Blue-Coat, subs.—A constable; a guardian of public order. This, like
many of its congeners, has been applied to serving-men, beadles,
tailors, and others wearing a uniform of a dark blue colour. Like blue,
blue-bottle, etc., its application to a policeman is of some antiquity.
Cf., Blue, sense 1, and Beak, sense 1.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 19 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). And
being so taken, haue beene carried to places of correction, there
wofully tormented by blew-coates, cowardly fellowes, that ... haue
so scourged vs, that flesh and blood could hardly endure it.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 417. ‘I
thinks them Chartists are a weak-minded set ... a hundred o’ them
would run away from one blue-coat.’
Blued or Blewed, ppl. adj. (common).—Tipsy; drunk. For synonyms, see
Screwed.
Blue Dahlia, subs. (common).—A colloquialism for something rare or
seldom seen; a rara avis.
Blue Devils, subs. (popular).—1. Dejection; lowness of spirits;
hypochondria.
1786. Cowper, Letters, No. 219, vol. II., p. 143 (ed. 1834). I have
not that which commonly is a symptom of such a case belonging to
me,—I mean extraordinary elevation in the absence of Mr. Blue
devil. When I am in the best health, my tide of animal
sprightliness flows with great equality.
1790. W. B. Rhodes, Bombastes Furioso, Sc. 1.
Or, dropping poisons in the cup of joy,
Do the blue devils your repose annoy?
1871. Planché, King Christmas. There are blue devils which defy
blue pills.
1880. G. R. Sims, Three Brass Balls, pledge iii. He got
discontented and had fits of blue devils.
Two French equivalents for feeling out of sorts are s’emboucaner, and
s’éncoliflucheter.
2. (popular.)—Delirium tremens. From the apparitions drunkards often
suppose they see. In both this and the foregoing sense blue devils is
contracted into blues.
1818–9. Cobbett, Resid. U.S., 42. It was just the weather to give
drunkards the blue devils.
1831. Scott, Demonology, i., 18. They, by a continued series of
intoxication, became subject to what is popularly called the blue
devils.
Hence such derivatives as blue devilage; blue devilry; blue devilism;
and an adjectival form blue devilly.
1871. Lockhart, Fair to See, I., p. 208. On the lower hills the
pine-trees loomed through stagnant mists with a dejected and
blue-devilly aspect.
Blue Fear, subs. (popular).—Extreme fright. [From the ‘blue’ or pallid
cast of countenance which fear is supposed to induce. The same as blue
funk (q.v.), which is more general.]
1883. R. L. Stevenson, The Treasure of Franchard, in Longman’s
Mag., April, p. 683. Anastasie had saved the remainder of his
fortune by keeping him strictly in the country. The very name of
Paris put her in a blue fear.
Blue Flag, subs. (common).—A blue apron (q.v.). Worn by butchers,
publicans, and other tradesmen.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. He has hoisted the
blue flag, he has commenced publican, or taken a public house,
alluding to the blue aprons worn by publicans.
Blue Funk, subs. (popular).—Extreme fright, nervousness, or dread.
[Funk is ‘to stink through fear’; Wedgwood connects it with the Walloon
funker, ‘to smoke.’]
1856. Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, p. 196. If I was
going to be flogged next minute, I should be in a blue funk.
1861. Macmillan’s Magazine, p. 211. I was in a real blue funk.
1861. Saturday Review, Nov. 23, 534. We encounter ... the miserable
Dr. Blandling in what is called a blue funk. [M.]
1871. Maxwell, in Life (1882), xvi., 382. Certainly χλωρὸν θέος is
the Homeric for a blue funk.
Blue Hen’s Chickens, subs. (American).—A slang name for the inhabitants
of Delaware. The nickname arose thus: Captain Caldwell, an officer of
the first Delaware regiment in the American War of Independence, was
noted for his love of cock-fighting. Being personally popular, and his
regiment becoming famous for their valour, they were soon known as
‘game-cocks’; and as Caldwell maintained that no cock was truly game
unless its mother was a blue hen, his regiment, and subsequently
Delawareans generally, became known as blue hen’s chickens, and
Delaware as the Blue Hen State for the same reason. A boaster is also
often brought to book by the sarcasm, ‘Your mother was a blue hen no
doubt.’
Blue Horse, subs. (military).—The Fourth Dragoon Horse, from its
facings.
Blue Lightning, subs. (American).—One of the grimly facetious names
with which Texans have christened revolvers. At times a dispute has
literally been a word, a flash of blue lightning and—certain death. For
synonyms, see Barker.
Blue Monday, subs. (workmen’s).—A Monday spent in dissipation and
absence from work. One often hears the phrase ‘to feel Mondayish.’ The
German has der blaue Montag. Cf., Black Saturday.
1885. Harper’s Magazine, p. 873, col. 1. The workman getting sober
after his usual blue Monday. [M.]
Blue Moon. Once in a blue moon, phr. (popular).—Extremely seldom; an
unlimited time; a rarely recurring period. An old phrase, first used in
the sense of something absurd. A blue moon, like the Greek Kalends, is
something which does not exist. A variant is ‘when two Sundays come in
a week.’ As regards origin nothing is known; barring the extract from
Roy and Barlow, authorities give no examples earlier than 1876—a
curious fact.
1526. Roy and Barlowe, Rede me and be not wroth, p. 114 [ed. Arber,
1871].
Yf they saye the mone is belewe,
We must beleve that it is true,
Admittynge their interpretacion.
1860. F. W. Robinson, Grandmother’s Money, I., p. 144. If he talked
till a blue moon, etc.
1876. Miss Braddon, Joshua Haggard’s Daughter, ch. xxiv. Why should
she stint as to one or two puddings a week ... and a fruit pasty
once in a blue moon.
1884. R. E. Francillon, Ropes of Sand, ch. xxi. ‘I’ve made bold to
take the chance of your being at home for once in a blue moon, Mr.
Carew,’ said she.
Blue Murder or Blue Murders, subs. (common).—A term used to describe
cries of terror or alarm; a great noise; an unusual racket. Cf., French
morbleu.
1887. J. S. Winter, Eng. Ill. Mag., Dec., p. 179. The dingy person
dropped his victim and howled what the half-dozen officers ...
graphically described as blue murder.
Blueness, subs. (common).—Indecency. Smutty talk is described as blue,
sense 2 (q.v.).
1840. Carlyle, Diderot, Ess., 240. The occasional blueness of both
[writings] shall not altogether affright us.
French Synonyms. Les horreurs; les bêtises; les gueulées. To talk blue
is rendered by décravater ses propos.
Blue Noses, subs. (American).—The natives of Nova Scotia. A nickname
given them by the Yankees in allusion, it is said, to a potato of that
name which Nova Scotians claim to be the best in the world. Proctor,
however, thinks differently, and says he would wager that the Nova
Scotians were called blue noses before the potato which they rear was
so named, and hazards the suggestion that the nickname refers to the
blueness of nose resulting from intense cold.
1837–40. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’). Do you know the reason monkeys
are no good? Because they chatter all day long,—as do the
niggers,—and so do the blue noses of Nova Scotia.
18(?). Sir George Simpson, Overland Journey, vol. I., p. 19. After
a run [in the steamer] of fourteen days, we entered the harbour of
Halifax, amid the hearty cheers of a large number of blue noses.
Blue [or Blew] One’s Screw, verbal phr. (common).—To waste or squander
one’s salary. [From blue or blew (q.v.) + screw (q.v.).]
Blue Peter, subs. (card-players’).—The signal or call for trumps at
whist. [Properly a blue flag with white square in centre, hoisted as a
signal for immediate sailing.]
1875. Beeton, Handy Book of Games, p. 358. Since the introduction
of Blue Peter, the necessity of leading through your adversary’s
hand has become less and less.
Blue Pigeon, subs. (thieves’).—Lead used for roofing purposes. Cf.,
Bluey and Blue pigeon flyer. Of doubtful origin, but possibly a punning
allusion. Lead has long been known as ‘bluey,’ and pigeons frequently
find a resting-place on house-tops.
1887. Judy, 27 April, p. 200. A burglar whose particular ‘lay’ was
flying the blue pigeon, i.e., stealing lead.
(Nautical.)—The sounding lead.
Blue Pigeon Flyer, subs. phr. (thieves’).—A thief who steals lead from
the roofs of buildings. Hotten thus explains the modus operandi.
Sometimes a journeyman plumber, glazier, or other workman, who, when
repairing houses, strips off the lead, and makes away with it. This
performance is, though, by no means confined to workmen. An empty house
is often entered and the whole of the roof in its vicinity stripped,
the only notice given to the folks below being received by them on the
occasion of a heavy downfall of rain. The term flyer has, indeed, of
late years been more peculiarly applied to the man who steals the lead
in pursuance of his vocation as a thief, than to him who takes it
because it comes in the way of his work.
1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 165. Blue pigeon flying.
Fellows who steal lead off houses, or cut pipes away.
French equivalents are un limousineur; un gras-doublier; un
mastaroufleur.
To fly the blue pigeon, verbal phr. (thieves’).—To steal lead from the
roofs of houses.—See Blue pigeon. French equivalents are faire la
mastar au gras-double; ratisser du gras double.
1872. J. Doran, in Notes and Queries, 4 S., x., 308. Even at the
present day, no rascal would stoop to strip lead from the roof of a
house. At least, what honest men would call by that name, he would
prettily designate as ‘flying the blue pigeon.’
Blue Pill, subs. (popular).—A bullet; also called blue plum and blue
whistler. For synonyms, see Pill.
1861. N. Y. Tribune (Let. from Missouri), Nov. 10. Between blue
pills, halters, and the penitentiary, we shall soon work off this
element of rascaldom and horse-thieves.
Blue Plum, subs. (thieves’).—A bullet. Cf., Blue pill and Blue
whistler.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Surfeited with a blue
plumb, wounded with a bullet; a sortment of George R——’s blue
plumbs, a volley of ball, shot from soldier’s firelocks.
1834. Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood (1884), p. 95.
Believe me, there is not a game, my brave boys,
To compare with the game of high toby;
No rapture can equal the toby man’s joys,
To blue devils, blue plumbs give the go by.
Blue Ruin, subs. (common).—Gin, generally of inferior quality. For
synonyms, see Drinks.
c. 1817. Keats, A Portrait. He sipped no olden Tom or ruin blue, or
Nantz or cherry brandy.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 39.
A few short words I first must spare,
To him, the Hero, that sits there,
Swigging Blue ruin, in that chair.
1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act iii., Sc. 3. Log. Here,
Landlord, more Blue Ruin, my boy! Sal. Massa Bob, you find me no
such bad partner; many de good vill and de power me get from de
Jack Tar.
1847. Lytton, Lucretia, pt. II., ch. xx. ‘The littel un ... had
been abrought up upon spoon-meat, with a dash o’ blue-ruin to make
him slim and ginteel.’
1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. xxiii. The stuff itself,
which in the western gin-shops goes generally by the name of
blue-ruin or ‘short.’
Blues, subs. (popular).—1. Despondency; hypochondria; depression of
spirits. [A shortened form of blue devils (q.v.).] A French synonym is
se faire des plumes or paumer ses plumes.
1807. Washington Irving, Salmagundi (1824), p. 96. In a fit of the
blues. [M.]
1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. viii. The moat alone is
enough to give one the blues.
1889. John Strange Winter, That Imp, p. 10. ‘Miss Aurora,’ he said
suddenly, one evening after dinner, ‘it’s awfully dull at Drive
now; does it never strike you so?’ ‘Very often, my dear,’ answered
Miss Aurora promptly. ‘It’s as dull as—’ ‘Ditch-water,’ supplied
Driver, finding she paused for a word which would express dulness
enough. ‘I wonder you and Betty don’t die of the blues.’