Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also till all looks blue) to the extreme, esp. used of excessive drinking.

1616		R.C. Times’ Whistle 1835: Thus they drink round / Vntill their adle heads doe make the ground / Seeme blew vnto them; till their hands doe shake .
1639		Ford Lady’s Trial IV ii: We can drink till all look blue.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 391: She curs’d till all the ground look’d blue.
1803		R. Anderson ‘Watty’ Cumberland Ballads (1805) 56: We’ll ha’e feastin, fiddlin, dancin, drinkin, singin [...] ay, till aw’s blue.
1815		T. Whittell ‘Johnny Brecking’s Wedding’ Poetical Works 136: They had revell’d till all was blue.
1821		‘Memoirs of Neat’ in Fancy I XIX 446: Fancy songs, Rum glees, and Kiddy catches were the order of the night, and the company kept it up till all was blue, with harmony benefitting the occasion.
1821–6		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 146: This same duty lies in drinking grog till all is blue.
1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 186: ‘Toeing and heeling’ it until all was blue, with merry Peg, of Portsmouth Point.
1836		Sydney Gaz. and NSW Advertiser 3 Nov. 3/1: Timmons [...] seized the unfortunate intruder by the throat, and squeezed his windpipe till all was blue.
1838–9		Dickens Nicholas Nickleby (1982) 68: [They] promised the old baron that they would drink his wine ‘Till all was blue’ – meaning probably until their whole countenances had acquired the same tint as their noses.
1840		T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 135: They eat and drank, and drank and eat, till all was blue agin.
1850		F.E. Smedley Frank Fairlegh (1878) 80: The Captain began storming at Slipsey, whom he declared himself ready to kick till all was blue.
1868		‘Do You Really Think She Did?’ in Rootle-Tum Songster 68: She was very fond of oysters, she’d eat till all was blue.
1877		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (4th edn) 49: Blue [...] To drink ‘till all ’s blue’ is to get exceedingly tipsy.
1890		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer I 116: We’ll drink tea till all’s blue.
1928		Capricorn (Rockhampton, Qld) 20 Dec. 19/1: Poor Bunghole swore till all was blue.

2. (US) to the very end, the ‘bitter’ end.

1804		T.G. Fessenden ‘Canto II’ Poems 37: You may speechify fine, / And swear you will love till all’s blue, [...] But faith I’ll not spark it with you.
1806		Balance 22 July 232: The land we till is all our own; / Whate’er the price we paid it; / Therefore we’ll fight till all is blue, / Should any dare invade it.
1828		High Life in London 13 Jan. 5/4: [T]hat fighting disposition, which, with or without cause, will quarrel until all is blue.
1836		‘The W-hole of the Ladies’ in Comic Songster and Gentleman’s Private Cabinet 12: The parson so pious may preach ’till all blue.
1838		T. Haliburton Clockmaker II 263: Natur’ has given [...] river sludge for dressin’, their upland, so that it could be made to carry wheat till all’s blue again.
1856		C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend II 245: You may bully him and queer him till all is blue, and he won’t budge.
1862		J.R. Lowell Biglow Papers 2nd Ser. (1880) 64: You / Thet waller in your low idees, an’ will till all is blue.
1878		‘’Arry to the Front!’ Punch 9 Mar. 100/2: Go it, my boy, till all’s blue.
1892		Morton & LeBrunn ‘Twiggy Voo?’ in http://monologues.co.uk/musichall 🌐 Now a lover and his lass / Were exchanging spoony gas / And I thought they’d keep it up till all was blue.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 17 Feb. 3/3: But other kinds of work that he on weekdays doesn’t foller, / He may do until all’s blue.
1901		H. Lawson ‘The Shearer’s Dream’ in Roderick (1967–9) II 3: Our pay was the wool on the jumbuck’s backs, so we shore till all was blue.
1909		H. Thompson ‘Song of a Rolling Stone’ Ballads About Business and Back-Block Life 90: I swore till all was blue.
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘A Holy War’ Rose of Spadgers 47: An’ us crusaders two / Goes down to-night to Spadgers, to cut loose / Till all is blue.
1935		Derby Dly Teleg. 16 Oct. 7/1: If seven men with seven tongues talked on till all is blue / Could they give the reason why / Guiness is good for you?