Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the police.

1850		Fast Man 7:1 n.p.: A week in the blues. By a Discharged peeler.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 257: He would chatter gaily and enter with gusto into the details of some cleverly executed ‘bit of business,’ or ‘bilking the blues’ – evading the police.
1883		J. Greenwood Tag, Rag & Co. 114: I happened to know that in criminal circles to describe a person as being ‘shy of the blues’ is equivalent to saying that he has particular reasons for keeping out of the way of the police.
1953		K. Tennant Joyful Condemned 21: Don’t let’s have any blues [...] You know how the brush are? Screaming and yelling copper at the least little thing.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 22/1: blues, the n. pl. the police.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 157: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] The breaks. The beast. The blues. The vapors.

2. (Aus./US) a blue uniform.

1918		Kia Ora Coo-ee 15 Aug. 17/1: I am not handsome, neither am I vain; but when they issued me with ‘blues’ at the 14th. A.G.H. [...] I wanted to go away and die quickly in a dark corner.
1944		H. Hunt East of Farewell 131: I’m going to [...] get into my blues.

3. any trousers.

1974

(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 238: You ever see such a punk? Shittin his blues. Pissin his pants. [Ibid.] 358: He pulled out the tailor-made dress blues. He unfurled the trousers and held them up to his waist.

4. a police uniform.

1996		(con. 1949) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 147: And here he was, a beat cop, wearing the same lousy blues given to him when he joined the force.
2009		J. Stahl Pain Killers 49: How was Roscoe supposed to know the man was police if his blues were ona hanger.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 157: He wore his full four-star blues.

5. (US prison) a prison uniform.

1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 226: Deliver a clean set of blues to Society Red. You know where he cells?
1976		M. Braly False Starts 232: Worn blues and scuffed shoes.
1986		J. Ellroy Silent Terror 67: Inmates awaiting sentencing and classification were called ‘blues,’ a reference to the denim uniform I was now wearing.
2004		N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 127: I was given a set of blues to wear. Prison blues consist of jeans, T-shirt and denim jacket.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 306: One older Black man waited in prison blues and brogans.

6. amphetamines.

1967		Oz 2 13/2: Blues (drinamil) sell at 1/3d. each.
1973		The Who ‘Cut My Hair’ 🎵 on Quadrophenia [album] I clean my room and my shoes, / but my mother found a box of blues.
1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 133: On the corner of 162nd Street, three boys and two girls shout to me [...] ‘got that coke, got that crack, got red caps, got blues, got yellow ones – you choose. What you want, my friend? What you need?’.
1998		Source Oct. 154: We got reds! We got blues!
2001		I. Welsh Glue 95: That boy Nicky that sells the blues is doon thair n we git yin each offay um.

7. (US) a sailor’s trousers.

1970

E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 351: A pair of bell-bottom blues on a stiffly grinning landlubbery mannequin.

8. (US) blue jeans.

1987		‘Victoria Parker’ Pay for Play Cheerleaders 🌐 The lovely lassies were quick to obey their teacher, both doffing their blues, pushing them down their gorgeous legs until they gathered around their ankles.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 190: Last pair of these disco blues I’m gonna buy.

9. (Aus. prison) prison officers; thus used as adj. to refer to staff activity, e.g. blue talk, prison officer conversations etc.

1990

Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Blues. Prison Officers (NSW). A straightforward reference to uniform colour. Can be used as an adjective to describe staff activity, eg ‘blue talk’ is prison officer talk.