1883. Miss Braddon, Golden Calf, ch. xxvi. 'Blow his station in life! If he was a duke I shouldn't want him.'
5. (general.)—To lose or spend money. Cf., Blue.
6. (University.)—To indulge in a frolic or spree. Cf., Blow out; also To go on the blow.
7. (Winchester School.)—To blush.
To bite the blow, phr. (old cant).—To steal goods; to Prig, which see for synonyms.
Blow a Cloud, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To
smoke a cigar or
pipe; Hotten says, 'a phrase
used two centuries ago' but
gives no authority, and Murray's
earliest example only dates
from 1855, but as will be seen
below, it occurs in Tom Crib in
1819.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib's Memorial to Congress, p. 39. . . . His fame I need not tell, For that, my friends, all England's loud with; But this I'll say, a civiller Swell I'd never wish to blow a cloud with.
1870. M. Twain, Innocents Abroad, ch. vii. And blowing suffocating 'clouds' and boisterously performing at dominoes in the smoking-room at night.
French Synonyms. Tubons en une (popular: 'let's blow a cloud'; tuber = to smoke); piper; la fumerie (popular: smoking); faire du brouillard ('to produce or make a fog or mist'); en bourrer une; bouffarder. A German Synonym is Esef schwächen, or schweihen.
Blow-Book, subs. (old).—A book
containing indelicate or 'smutty'
pictures.
1708. Post Man, 8 June. Last Sunday a person did pennance in the Chapter-House of St. Paul's, London, for publickly shewing in Bartholomew Fair a book called a blow-book, in which were many obscene and filthy pictures: the book was likewise burnt, and the person paid costs.
Blowed. To be blowed, verb
(familiar).—Blowed is here a
euphemism for 'damned'; to all
intents and purposes, it is
frequently little more than a
thinly-veiled oath. Hotten
says that Tom Hood used to
tell the following story:—'I
was once asked to contribute to
a new journal, not exactly
gratuitously, but at a very
small advance upon nothing—and
avowedly because the work
had been planned according to
that estimate. However, I
accepted the terms conditionally—that
is to say, provided
the principle could be properly
carried out. Accordingly, I
wrote to my butcher, baker,
and other tradesmen, informing
them that it was necessary, for
the sake of cheap literature and
the interest of the reading public,
that they should furnish me
with their several commodities
at a very trifling per-centage
above cost price. It will be
sufficient to quote the answer
of the butcher:—"Sir,—Respectin'
your note, Cheap literater
be blowed! Butchers
must live as well as other pepel—and
if so be you or the
readin' publick wants to have
meat at prime cost, you must
buy your own beastesses, and
kill yourselves.—I remain, etc.,
John Stokes."'
Cf., Blow me!
1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 50. Others remonstrating with the said Thomas Sludberry, on the impropriety of his conduct, the said Thomas Sludberry repeated the aforesaid expression, 'You be blowed.'
