Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a joc. euph. for damned adj. (1); thus phrs. I’m blessed, I’ll be blessed.

1683		W. Kennett (trans.) Erasmus Witt against Wisdom (1509) n.p.: Prodigious Fops, I'le swear, which can't agree / To be call'd what's their Happiness to be: / Blest Ideots!
1798		J. O’Keeffe Irish Mimics Works III 345: Be quiet, or I’ll ask your pardon before the whole blessed bevy here.
1806		W. Windham letter 22 Jan. in Amyot Life of Windham (1812) 77: As one of the happy consequences of our blessed system of printing debates, I am described today [...] as having talked a language directly the reverse of that which I did talk .
1821–6		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 145: He has been kicking us this whole blessed morning from hell to Hackney.
1836		T. Haliburton Clockmaker I 54: He [...] never said another word, lookin as mad as a hatter the whole blessed time.
1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 138: She merely expressed an emphatic and earnest desire to be ‘blessed’ if she would.
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 79: Oh, Lor’, if you’d heard my blessed apologies—like nothing but the Arabian Nights, so help m’ tater!—jist a thousand and one rolled into one.
1850		‘Ned Buntline’ G’hals of N.Y. 76: An’ that’s jis’ the way it is now all over this blessed world.
1853		Dickens Bleak House (1991) 87: ‘Blest!’ says Mr. Guppy, staring in a kind of dismay at his friend, ‘if I can ever have seen her’.
1853		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Sept. 50/1: We stuck by that blessed old river / (The thought of it still makes me shiver).
1865		H. Kingsley Hillyars and Burtons (1870) 43: We shan’t get through this Sunday without a blessed row, I know.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 245: Blessed if they didn’t identify her as having lifted some things out of the shop.
1884		Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 14 June 49: [caption] ‘I’m blessed if the old humbug ain’t been and gave me a duffing ’alfpenny’.
1885		Kipling Civil and Military Gazette 25 Dec. in Pinney (1987) n.p.: ‘I’m – blessed, if I do,’ I responded fervently. ‘Don’t swear,’ said Le Diable Boiteux.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 55: Blest if I understand a word of it.
1890		‘Morris the Mohel’ ‘Houndsditch Day By Day’ in Sporting Times 11 Jan. 3: If he found a mug at Croydon that week he’d shtand Sam for her to go all the plessed vay to ’Olland and pack, to pe geuristered?
1893–4		H. Lawson ‘Stiffner and Jim’ in Roderick (1972) 124: Well, I’ll be blessed!
1894		Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 27 Sept. 1/4: The native makes you curse and swear, it is his little plan, / He knows your blessed temper, so he riles you all be can; / And the native is ingenious In poking up a man.
1899		E.W. Hornung Amateur Cracksman (1992) 33: You left the same tracks every day, you buggins’, an’ the same tracks every night, all round the blessed premises.
1900		J. Conrad Lord Jim 101: I can’t get a skipper or a shipowner to go near the place. So I made up my mind to cart the blessed stuff myself.
1900		Marvel 22 May 3: I’m blessed if I know.
1903		T.W.H. Crosland ‘Mystery’ in Five Notions 57: Likewise, the thrifty bookseller / Wept many a bitter drop: / ‘What is the blessed use?’ he said, / ‘The slump declines to stop’.
1901		A. Perry [perf. Marie Lloyd] William ’Enry Sarnders 🎵 ’E’d made ’is blessed mind up, though, that ’e’d do no sich thing.
1908		Pelham & Rule [perf. Kate Carney] Don't forget to call me in the morning 🎵 An old, old man owed an awful lot of rent / That old, old chap hadn’t got a blessed cent.
1911		Gem 16 Sept. 11: Hasn’t a blessed surname.
1918		C.J. Dennis ‘An Old Master’ in Backblock Ballads 19: Nothin’ left us but unyoke ’em and sling off the blessed load.
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 24: We all signed the petition, mind you — the ole blessed family.
1938		F. Durbridge Send for Paul Temple (1992) 56: There’s nothing in the courtyard, sir [...] except a lot of blessed pigeons.
1947		N. Algren ‘Depend on Aunt Elly’ in Texas Stories (1995) 100: Every blessed woman [...] sending her fifty dollars a month.
1958		J. Osborne Epitaph for George Dillon Act I: All this blessed fuss!
1961		‘Frank Richards’ Billy Bunter at Butlins 85: Blessed if I see anything to cackle at!
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 49: Even if they had slobbered over every blessed picture in the place they would not have understood.
1986		R.G. Barrett Godson 81: ‘[T]his whole blessed thing has been blown out of all proportion’.
2006		C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 78: We’re poisoning the whole blessed planet.

2. as infix.

1905

Marvel III:57 1: Waal, great snakes, it’s just abso-blessed-lutely marvellous!

3. (US prison) reformed.

1960

(con. 1950-1960) R.A. Freeman Dict. Inmate Sl. (Walla Walla, WA) 12: Blessed – reformed.