The Monday before Lent, spent in dissipation. (German, der blaue Montag.) It is said that dissipation gives everything a blue tinge. Hence “blue” means tipsy. (See Blue Devils.)
“Drink till all is blue.
Cracking bottles till all is blue.”
Fraser’s Magazine, xvii. (1838).
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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