black and blue

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

The color of a bruise; a familiar expression for a bruise, here and in England.


Mistress Ford, good heart, is beaten black and blue, that you cannot see a white spot about her.--Shakspeare, Merry Wives of Windsor.

And, wingd with speed and fury, flew

To rescue Knight from black and blue.

Hudibras.

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