from the French Bibliothèque Bleu, a series of books of very questionable character. Books or conversation of an entirely opposite nature are said to be brown or Quakerish, i.e., serious, grave, decent.
3. Gloomy; fearful; depressed; low-spirited. Cf., To look blue, Blue funk, and In the blues. Possibly an allusion to the blueness of cold.
1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. xxviii. Charley replied that neither had he any money at home. 'That's blue,' said the man. 'It is rather blue,' said Charley.
1862. Trollope, Orley Farm, I., p. 93. It's blue; uncommon blue.
1864. Yates, Broken to Harness, I., p. 60. ' My dear Charlie,' said the girl . . . 'That certainly is a blue look-out,' she continued—for however earnest was her purpose she would not but express herself in her slang metaphor.
1872. S.L.Clemens ('Mark Twain'), Roughing It, ch. xl. I kept up my blue meditations.
1874. S. L. Clemens ('Mark Twain'), Gilded Age, ch. xxvii. I had forgotten dear, but when a body gets blue, a body forgets everything. . . . I am sorry I was blue, but it did seem as if everything had been going against me for whole ages.
Verb.—1. To blush. Cf., subs., sense 3.
1709. Steele and Swift, Tatler, No. 71, p. 8. If a Virgin blushes, we no longer cry she blues. [m.]
2. To pawn; pledge; spend; actually to get rid of money quickly. Cf., Blew. There are two suggested derivations of the word when used in this sense; (1) that it is connected with 'blown,' i.e., dissipated or scattered; and (2) that money so squandered has disappeared as effectually as if it had passed into the blue, i.e., the sky or the deep sea. The German has ins blaue hinein, 'away into the blue,' equivalent to the French passer au bleu. Faire passer au bleu is to dissipate, spend, or squander. For synonyms, in the sense of to pawn, see Pop.
1880. Punch's Almanac, p. 2. This top coat?—would blue it.
1887. Punch, 10 Sept., p. 111. I never minds blueing the pieces purvided I gets a good spree.
3. To miscalculate; 'to make a "mess" of anything'; to mull.
4. (thieves'.)—To steal; to plunder. To be blued, to be robbed. For synonyms, see Prig.
By all that's blue, phr. (popular).—A euphemistic oath; probably meaning 'by Heaven.' It may be compared with the French parbleu, synonymous with par Dieu.
1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xxiii. 'The black cat, by all that's blue!' cried the Captain.
Men in blue, phr. (popular).—The police.—See Blue, subs., sense 1.
1882. Besant, All Sorts and Cond. of Men, ch. xliii. 'You must now begin to think seriously about handcuffs and prison, and men in blue.'
1886. G. A. Apperson, Graphic, 30 Jan., p. 137. The police in recent times have been known as the blues and the men in blue.
Till all is blue, phr. (popular).—1. To the utmost; to the end; for an indefinite period. Smyth, in his Sailors' Word Book, says this phrase is borrowed from the idea of a vessel making out of port and getting into deep water.
1835. Haliburton, The Clockmaker, 2 S., ch. xix. [The land] could be made to carry wheat till all's blue again. Ibid, 3 S., ch. xx. Your mother kickin' and screamin' till all was blue again.
1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, I., p. 184. I'll have at her again, and dance till all's blue before I give in.
