A wale from a blow. A bruise turns the skin blue.
“‘Do you want a blue ribbon round those white sides of yours, you monkey?ʹ answered Orestes; ‘because, if you do, the hippopotamus hide hangs ready outside.ʹ”—Kingsley: Hypatia, chap. iv.
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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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