Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a policeman.

c.1834		‘Wonderful Times’ in Holloway & Black (1979) II 224: Sixteen servant girls was got with child by a Policeman all at once; / The parishes began to moan and Bluey got the sack.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 22/1: bluie 3 a policeman.

2. (also blue) a red-headed person; also as adj.

1837		Morn. Post (London) 4 July 6/2: ‘How do you do, Bluey?’ he exclaimed.
1848		Lincs. Chron. 28 July 7/1: It was a man named Bluey that gave me my black eye.
1862		Coventry Standard 25 Apr. 3/2: I asked him whether he was the owner of the pig. He said, ‘No I am not [...] It belongs to a man they call Bluey; I can’t tell you his real name’.
1864		Birmingham Gaz. 28 Jan. 8/5: Mick Maley (alias Blue) has only seen nineteen summers.
1876		Edinburgh Eve. News 22 May 4/4: It was supposed he had accomplices and Edward Rogers, alias ‘Bluey’ and Edward Jones, alias ‘Stick’ were apprehended.
1882		Bury & Norwich Post 22 Aug. 8/2: Henry Bray, alias ‘Bluey’, [was] charged by Inspector Barnard with obstructing the footway.
1892		‘Fanny Flukem’s Ball’ in Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) in J. Murray Larrikins (1973) 39: Fat Mag came down from Crown Street, / with little flat foot Poll / And Sally Jerks, the ice-cream bart, / And Bluey Murphy’s doll.
1899		Dundee Eve. Teleg. 16 Feb. 3/6: A smoking c oncert [...] at a tavern in the West End [...] a large number of Jehus will be present [...] Old lampy, Roll o’ Carpet, Ginger Blade, Old Bluey Young.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 July 14/1: A little thing like that put a second storey on me sentence. [...] You’ll finish th’ call f’r another? Very well, Bluey, swing y’r pot to ’appy days ’n’ a fair go et th’ finish!
1918		Kia Ora Coo-ee 15 Oct. 2/3: ‘Bluey’ is a large, red-headed, good-natured youth.
1921		(con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 60: ‘Is Blue all right?’ [...] ‘Yes, got a Blighty. Couple of leg wounds.’ [...] I find Dark just back from carrying Bluey to the doctor.
1928		Age (Melbourne) 10 Nov. 23/2: ‘Remember Bluey Smith? Billy Smith, that’s him’.
1936		‘Banjo’ Paterson Shearer’s Colt 123: All red-haired men are called ‘Bluey’ in Australia for some reason or other.
1940		Bowen Independent (Qld) 29 Apr. 3/2: The name of long, gingery, leather-lunged C.S.M. ‘Bluey’ Adams, of A. Coy., 31st, Bn., has appeared in these columns’ in descriptions of peace time camps, but has escaped mention since he hit Miowera. [...] ‘Blue’ is an Anzac of the Light Horse.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 177: ‘Bluey brought a perv book back from Cairo with him.’ I did not bother to ask which Bluey. Every fellow in the A.I.F. with ginger hair was called Bluey.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 86: They’ll all be there. Bluey Green?
1963		(con. 1944) L. Glassop Rats in New Guinea 51: Perhaps they called him Smiler because he did not smile, just as they called fellows with red hair ‘Blue’.
1964		B. Hesling Dinkumization or Depommification 69: His name was Hugh, but she called him Bluey for he had red hair.
1966		P. White Solid Mandala (1976) 147: Seen ’er making through the scrub with that bluey nut Arthur Brown.
1970		D. Butts Down Under Up Close 48: Nicknames, for example are common [...] anyone with red hair can look forward to a life as ‘Bluey’.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 38: Wake up and help, Blue. Me duchess is losing her drawers.
1996		Penguin Bk of More Aus. Jokes 29: Hey, mate, have you ever slept in bed with a beaut bluey sheila like that one?
2006		P. Carey Theft 21: He had red hair when young so they called him Blue meaning red.
2009		D. Boyd Legends of Surfing 24: Bluey, who of course was a redhead, started out surfing on his mom’s ironing board when he was a grommet of six years of age.
2016		N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] VITAL AUSSIE VERNACULAR Red-Head: A bluey.

3. a ‘navigator’, i.e. a labourer working on the railway [? the blue-steel tracks].

1845		Morn. Post (London) 29 Mar. 7/2: On our arrival in town we [...] cast anchor at the house of an old land Tar named Bluey in Whitechapel and soon found this bluey had sailed all over the Kingdoms.
1847		Hull Packet 24 Dec. 5/3: Mrs Binns saw the piece of shirt, and said, Bluey (meaning a labourer on the railway) had a shirt like this.

4. (UK Und.) lead.

1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1950		P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 189/2: Bluey. Lead.
1962		B. Behan Brendan Behan’s Island (1984) 100: Now, this bit of flashing ’ere ... there’ll be nearly a ’alf ton of bluey in that alone.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 174: Bluey (a) Lead.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.

5. a lead worker [abbr. bluebed woman, from the blueish colour of cooled molten lead].

1896

Dundee Courier 5 Nov. 8/1: One first sees the melting of the lead in the smelting furnaces [...] Here the blue-bed women are employed, ladling the molten metal into moulds [...] The blueys can sometimes earn two shillings a day.

6. (Aus., also blue) a pack [f. the trad. blue blanket that covered a pack].

1886		Bunyip (Gawler, SA) 19 Nov. 3/3: He picked up the swag again and said ‘I’m off to Teetulpa, I never humped a bluey before’.
1894		H. Lawson ‘Baldy Thompson’ in Roderick (1972) 108: The meanest old whaler that ever humped bluey.
1896		Leeds Times 10 Oct. 3/7: In Australia the tramp or ‘sundowner’ [...] is also a man of property [...] chiefly his ‘bleu’ and his ‘billy’.
1905		‘On the Road to Gundagai’ in ‘Banjo’ Paterson Old Bush Songs 24: So we humped our blues serenely and made for Sydney town.
1908		J. Gunn We of the Never-Never (1962) 19: I was sound asleep, rolled up in a ‘bluey’.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Oct. 14/1: I rise to object to the treatment meted out by artists to the great Australian swag. Almost invariably they show the bluey with a shoulder-strap fastened only at one end, and Billjim holding the other. [...] As a matter of fact, Matilda is usually fastened with two straps, and a third strap is attached to each.
1924		Lawrence & Skinner Boy in Bush 249: If he’s got a pack, it’s his swag. If he’s only got a blanket and a billy, it’s his bluey and drum.
1934		T. Wood Cobbers 175: The aboriginals have added new words to the English language [...] never-never, fossicker, woodchop, bluey.
1941		G. Casey ‘Short Shift Saturday’ in Mann Coast to Coast 212: There were parcels of ‘blueys,’ rolled in towels, all over the place.
1947		P. Newton Wayleggo (1953) 51: I shouldered my bluey.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 234/1: hump the bluey – to be on the tramp. In the Earlies the man on the move in the Outback carried his possessions rolled in a blanket. The original outdoor blanket was blue, and the nickname ‘bluey’ arose from that. Even though the blanket was sometimes so dingy and faded it was more nearly grey than blue, the name ‘bluey’ stuck, and ‘bluey’ now means any blanket, regardless of colour or contents.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 27: Why, what’s wrong with me rolling me bluey, making tracks for home per boot.
1971		A. Buzo The Roy Murphy Show (1973) 103: Wake up, Col, the dogs are pissing on your bluey.

7. (Aus.) a blue heeler, an Australian cattle dog.

1890s		H. Morant ‘Good Things Which Remain’ in Cutlack Breaker Morant (1962) 156: Cattle-dog Bluey, now what do you think? / Cunningest dog upon all the earth!
1917		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘The Merino Sheep’ in Three Elephant Power 36: Then there are loud whistlings and oaths, and calls for Rover and Bluey.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 73: The bluey is a type of cattle dog: originally a cross of the smooth-haired Scottish sheep dog and the dingo.
1955		D. Stivens Ironbark Bill 54: Quite a few put their money on Ironbark’s cattle-dog Bluey.
1965		B. Wannan Fair Go, Spinner 26: Old Sandy [...] was telling some cronies in a certain outback pub about how fast his cattle dog, Bluey, was.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 99: Your two blues are looking after the place.
1986		G.A. Wilkes Exploring Aus. Eng. 7: A bluey was for Henry Lawson a blanket, and also the swag rolled in it, so that to hump your bluey was to follow the life of a swagman. A bluey might also be a cattle dog, while a Tasmanian bluey is a hard-wearing jacket for outdoor work.

8. (Aus.) a heavy woolen coat of a grey-blue colour.

1898		Mt Lyell Standard (Queenstown, Tas) 10 Dec. 3/7: Rev. Mr Edwardes, when visiting those of his flock who dwell in the ‘suburbs’ does not disdain to wear a ‘bluey’ and carry a pannican.
1911		Mrs F. Rutledge Goulburn Cookery Bk xvi: [advert] Are you a frequent traveller in that Snowy, Cold, blizzard Weather, such as the Monaro Climate? If so, why not cloth yourself with a Genuine Tasmanian Bluey.
1917		Mercury (Hobart, Tas.) 26 July 3/3: ‘I had an old bluey on and in trying to throw it away the handle caught in the bluey, and the blade struck Withers on the jaw, inflicting a nasty wound.’.
1953		Advocate (Burnie, Tas.) 22 Sept. 6/7: When he escaped he was wearing a ‘bluey’ coat moleskin trousers and black boots, but may now be wearing other clothing.
2016		D. Whish-Wilson Old Scores [ebook] Having parked the stolen Mazda on a backstreet in Maylands, he’d followed the river dressed in a stinking old bluey.

9. a drinker of methylated spirits.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 104/2: C.20.

10. (Aus./N.Z., also blue paper) a summons, a traffic ticket.

1905		H. Lawson ‘Bush Fire’ in Roderick (1967–9) II 142: Flash Jim the Breaker is lying low — blue-paper is after him.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 13 May 4/8: If your creditors pelt you with ‘blueys,’ / And your cheques are returned from the bank.
1907		N.Z. Truth 26 Jan. 6/3: Court orderly Arthur Scully [...] served defendents with blue paper.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Oct. 44/1: In mild cases (for Jim) the local constable will often give his sister or his sweetheart a hint that there’s a ‘blue paper’ out for him.
1938		Press (Canterbury) 2 Apr. 18: A ‘bluey’ is a summons.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxii 7/1: bluey: [...] a summons.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 21: Bluey Court summons.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 17/1: bluey a summons; from the blue paper on which summonses are issued in Australia.
1989		R.G. Barrett Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 166: There’s a bluey up here for you [...] Failure to produce driver’s license.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 256: I got a bluey for parking.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

11. (Aus.) any form of reprimand, e.g. a referee’s warning to a sports competitor.

1914		Sport (Adelaide) 14 Feb. 10/4: They Say [...] That Nutsy W. was heard saying, ‘You needn’t have given us a bluey after all the trouble I took’.
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 63: Players frequently go the bash, and so sometimes one of them ends up a cot case. When that happens, the bloke responsible cops a bluey from the umpire.

12. (Aus.) a blue-tongued lizard.

1912

Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Aug. 13/1: [H]ave no fear of the lick of the blue-tongued lizard. Have seen a terrier’s ear torn in three strips by a bite from a ‘bluey’ with no ill-effects.

13. (UK prison/drugs) any form of amphetamine-barbiturate mixture.

1980

S. McConville ‘Prison Language’ in Michaels & Ricks (1980) 526: Amphetamine-barbiturate mixtures seem to have spawned a particularly vivid range of nicknames and images, often arising from the appearance or color of capsules in which they are taken. These include [...] bluey, [etc.].

14. a £5 note.

1991		R. Doyle Van (1998) 503: Not just green notes either, brown ones as well, and even a couple of blueys.
1998		K. Sampson Awaydays 62: ‘Here y’are,’ he said, handing me a bluey. ‘You can owe it us’.
2000		market trader East London 4 June [personal communication] Who wants these sirloin steaks. There you are. A fiver, a bluey, a deep-sea diver.

15. see blue n.¹ (2i)

16. (Aus. prison) a police warrant.

1990

Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Bluey. A police warrant.

17. see blue duck under blue adj.¹