Chapter Blow a Cloud to Blue Devils of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Blow a Cloud to Blue Devils

Blow a Cloud To smoke a cigar or pipe. This term was in use in Queen Elizabeth's reign.

Blow Me (an oath). You be blowed (an oath), a play on the word Dash me, which is a euphemism for a more offensive oath.

“ `Well, if you won't stand a pint,' quoth the tall man, `I will, that's all, and blow temperance.' ”- Kingsley: Alton Locke, chap. ii.

Blow out (A). A “tuck in,” or feast which swells out the paunch.

Blow-point A game similar to our pea-puffing, only instead of peas small wooden skewers or bits of pointed wood were puffed through the tube. The game is alluded to by Florio, Strutt, and several other authors.

Blown in the phrase “fly-blown,” has nothing to do with the verb to blow (as the wind blows). It means that flies have deposited their eggs and tainted the article. In French, deposer des oeufs de mouches sur ... and a fly-blow is un oeuf de mouche. The word seems to be connected with blot, the egg of a moth or other insect.

Blown Herrings are bloated herrings. The French bouffi (blown) is analogous to both expressions. Blown herrings are herrings bloated, swollen, or cured by smoking.

Blown upon Made the subject of a scandal. His reputation has been blown upon, means has been the subject of talk wherein something derogatory was hinted at or even asserted. Blown upon by the breath of slander.
   “Blown,” meaning stale, tainted, is probably the same as the above; but blown upon cannot be.

Blowzelinda A country maiden in Gay's pastoral called The Shepherd's Week.

“Sweet is toil when Blowzelind is near;
Of our bereft, 'tis winter all the year ....
Come Blowzelinda, ease thy swain's desire,
My summer's shadow and my winter's fire.”
Pastoral i.

Blowzy Coarse, red-faced, bloated; applied to women. The word is allied to blush, blaze, etc. (Dutch, bloozen and blaazen; Danish, blusser, to blaze.)

Blubber To cry like a child, with noise and slavering. Connected with slobber, slaver.

“I play the boy, and blubber in thy bosom.”
Otway: Venice Preserved, i. 1.

Blubber Cheeks Fat, flabby cheeks, like whale's blubber. “The blubber cheeks of my friend the baronet.”

Bluchers Half boots; so called after Field-Marshal von Blucher (1742-1819).

Blue or Azure is the symbol of Divine eternity and human immortality. Consequently, it is a mortuary colour- hence its use in covering the coffins of young persons. When used for the garment of an angel, it signifies faith and fidelity. As the dress of the Virgin, it indicates modesty. In blazonry, it signifies chastity, loyalty, fidelity, and a spotless reputation.
   The Covenanters wore blue as their badge, in opposition to the scarlet of royalty. They based their choice on Numb. xv. 38, “Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments ... and that they put upon the fringe ... a ribband of blue. ”
   (See Colours for its symbolisms.)

Blue (A), or a “staunch blue,” descriptive of political opinions, for the most part means a Tory, for in most counties the Conservative colour is blue. (See True Blue .)

“This was a blue demonstration, a gathering of the Conservative clans.”- Holme Lee.

   A blue. (See Blue Stocking.)
   A dark blue. An Oxford man or Harrow boy.
   A light blue. A Cambridge man or Eton boy.
   An old blue. One who has pulled in a University boat-race, or taken part in any of their athletic contests.

“There were five old blues playing.”- Standard, May 8th, 1883.

   True blue. This is a Spanish phrase, and refers to the notion that the veins shown in the skin of aristocratic families are more blue than that of