Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bluenose n.1

1. (US) a Canadian, esp. a resident of Nova Scotia [SE bluenose, a variety of potato native to Nova Scotia, but note late 17C Scot. bluenose, a Scot. Presbyterian and the stereotyped New England Yankee, seen as blue-nosed adj. (1), thus the northern nose is blue with chilly disapproval].

in Acadiensis Jan. (1902) 65: The Blue-noses, to use a vulgar appellation [...] exerted themselves to the utmost of their power and cunning.
Northern Watchman (Troy, NY) 30 Nov. n.p.: A real bluenose, fresh from the land of steady habits.
[US]T. Haliburton Clockmaker I 60: One of those blue-noses, with his go-to-meetin clothes on.
[US]T. Haliburton Sam Slick in England I 91: ‘Can you tell me why the Nova Scotians are called “Blue-noses?”’ ‘It is the name of a potato,’ said I, ‘which they produce in great perfection.’.
Sir G. Simpson Overland Journey I 19: After a run [in the steamer] of fourteen days, we entered the harbour of Halifax, amid the hearty cheers of a large number of blue noses [B].
[US]Knickerbocker (N.Y.) xlii (Nov.) 545: A little boy, accompanying his mother to New Brunswick, said to her: ‘Mother, are those all Blue Noses?’.
[US]T. Haliburton Nature and Human Nature II 255: ‘Blue-nose Mary.’ ‘What in the world do they call her Bluenose for?’ ‘It is a nickname for the Nova Scotians.’.
[UK]G.A. Sala My Diary in America I 107: A sensation line, ‘Base Complicity of the Blue-noses’ – implying that the desperate act had been gotten up by the inhabitants of Halifax.
Border Watch (Mt Gambier, SA) 24 June 3/1: Blue Noses — by which slang name [...] the natives of Nova Scotia and Now Brunswick are dubbed.
Cairo Dly Bull. (IL) 20 Dec. 2/4: Nova Scotia, blue nose.
[UK]J.T. Keane On Blue-Water 188: The little games that went on board her were in real good ‘blue-nose’ style.
[US]Century Dict.
[US]N.Y. Mercury 1 Jan. in Ware (1909) 38/1: This ought to make recruiting brisk in Canada and incite the blue noses to volunter in a mass to defend Queen Victoria’s codfish.
[Aus]Coburg Leader (Vic.) 5 Oct. 4/3: [T]he canadian blue nose absolutely left his glass pint of Tullock and McLaren’s ale untouched.
[US]Reno (Nev.) Eve. Gazette 28 Apr. 2/2: A native of Nova Scotia is a ‘blue-nose’.
[UK]Shields Dly Gaz. 16 Oct. 4/5: I was resolved that no ‘Blue Nose’ that ever breathed should maltreat me.
[US]Carr & Chase ‘Word-List From Eastern Maine’ in DN III:iii 241: Bluenose, n. A native of New Brunswick who is not of French extraction. ‘The Bluenoses come from New Brunswick.’ The connotation is uncomplimentary.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Oct. 39/1: We had a nigger on board when we started from Melbourne that thrip – the skipper picked him up dhrunk one night outside Antonio’s, where the Russians an’ the dagoes an’ the Dutchmen an’ the Bluenoses all booze together quiet an’ friendly.
[US]Broadway Brevities Aug. 36/2: Estelle Penning and her nice mumma are spending the summer way down in Nova Scotia, at Lower Argyle, near Yarmouth. Estelle promised to send us some jottings from the land of the bluenose.
[UK]B. Lubbock Bully Hayes 18: He was no hazing, heavy-fisted, knuckle-duster bucko of the Down-East and Blue Nose type.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

2. (US) a Northerner, esp. a New Englander.

[US]O.W. Holmes Autocrat of the Breakfast Table 73: The Provincial blue-noses are in the habit of beating the ‘metropolitan’ boat-clubs.

3. a Nova Scotian ship, or a member of its crew.

[US]‘Frederick Benton Williams’ (H.E. Hamblen) On Many Seas 144: it was a very creditable act on the part of the ‘blue nose,’ for many a skipper would simply have starved and worked [...] his crew until they would have been glad to clear out.

4. (US) a dedicated, fanatical puritan, almost invariably a teetotaller; also attrib. [orig. an aristocrat (who had ‘blue blood’), bluenoses passed the repressive ‘blue laws’ that restricted the morals of many states ? + the opposite of the drunk, who boasts a conspicuously red nose].

[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 10 Dec. 95/2: An ornate prayer’s scarcely part of the game when the lusty bluenose fills his face.
[US] (ref. to 1890s) H.C. Brown In the Golden Nineties 187: With a lot of blue noses on the Board, this concession was not secured without great diplomacy.
[US] (ref. to late 19C) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 88: A cathouse was usually called by its madam’s name [...] It was dangerous to become too fancy or too famous; the bluenoses sniffed those out.
[US]W.R. Burnett Dark Hazard (1934) 141: Racing will always be on the edge down here. Too many blue-noses and long-hairs.
[US]W. Winchell On Broadway 30 Oct. [synd. col.] Lots of the Representatives from the corn bread and by-cracky belts haven’t got the ‘moxie’ to nix a blue nose measure.
[US]Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 109: The section called ‘Americana’ where all the bluenoses, bigots and two-faced killjoys [...] got a going-over.
[US](con. 1860s) S. Longstreet Pedlocks (1971) 29: I remember when Queen Victoria accepted chloroform for the delivery of her seventh child, Prince Leopold, in 1853. How the Church and the blue-noses screamed.
[US]B. Appel Tough Guy [ebook] [I]f someone, some bluenose, had cried, ‘Down with Drinking!’ the crowds, even the drunks, would have agreed with equal moral fervor.
[US]T. Berger Reinhart in Love (1963) 262: Bluenose Reinhart [...] slept very late next morning [...] in his chaste bed.
[US](con. late 19C) S. Longstreet Wilder Shore 74: [Quote from R.J. wine merchant in San Francisco 1859–1910] ‘Mr. Crocker is a bit of a blue-nose even about social drinking.’.
[US]L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 57: A two-sided single whose titles were ‘Give It To Me’ and ‘I Cant Control Myself’ was on a collision course with some ultimate puissant bluenose from the start.
[US]P. Hamill A Drinking Life (1996) 183: Then, as in my own 1953, right-wingers, bigots, bluenoses, and puritans ruled America.
[US]T. Udo Vatican Bloodbath 35: The other bluenoses around the table joined in. ‘Keep St George in your heart...’.
[US]H. Schecter in Gaddis & Long Panzram (2002) 2: Another widely embraced delusion promoted by an army of bluenoses [...] and [...] moral watchbogs.

5. someone who sees themselves as superior to their neighbours.

[US]Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl. 8: blue nose [...] an aristocratic, upper society member.
[US]‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 138: A shrewd, intelligent con who could write, talk, and make it with the blue noses.

6. attrib. use of sense 4.

[US]Mad mag. July 44: When some blue nose morons call my show obscene they’re dead wrong.