blue

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

1) Gloomy, severe; extreme, ultra.


In the former sense it is applied especially to the Presbyterians, to denote their severe and mortified appearance. Thus, beneath an old portrait of the seventeenth century, in the Woodburn Gallery, is the following inscription:

A true blue Priest, a Lincey Woolsey Brother,

One legg a pulpit, holds a tub the other;

An Orthodox grave, moderate Presbyterian,

Half surplice cloake, half Priest, half Puritan.

Made up of all these halfes, hee cannot pass

For anything entirely but an ass.

In the latter sense it is used particularly in politics.

The bluest description of old Van Rensselaer Federalists have followed Col. Prentiss (in Otsego county).--N. Y. Tribune.

2) A synonym in the tippler's vocabulary for drunk.

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