Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. deflowered; no longer virgin, thus, of a whore, thought to be used by many men.

1607		Dekker & Webster Northward Hoe I ii: Gentlemen, and Tobacco-stinckers, and such like, are still buzzing where sweete meates are (like Flyes) but they make any flesh stinke that they blow vpon.
1631		S. Marmion Holland’s Leaguer IV ii: Hast thou e’er a morsel That is not tainted or fly blown?
1640		T. Rawlins Rebellion IV i: Evadne is flye-blowne, I cannot love her.
1678		Otway Friendship in Fashion IV 332: Have you a stomach so hot that it can digest Carrion that has been buzz’d about and blown upon by all the Flies in the Town?
1683		Whores Rhetorick 219: It is most convinient to make her Markets under a disguise [...] she avoids the inconvienience of being Fly-blown, or blasted by the contagious Eyes of any sparkish Cabal.
1702		T. Brown Letters from the Dead to the Living in Works (1760) II 251: I am sensible it is as hard a matter for a pretty woman to keep herself honest in a theatre, as it is for an apothecary to keep his treacle from flies in hot weather; for every libertine in the audience will be buzzing about her honey-pot, and her virtue must defend itself by abundance of fly-traps, or those flesh-loving insects will soon blow upon her honour, and when once she has had a maggot in her tail, all the pepper and salt in the kingdom will scarce keep her reputation from stinking.
1702		Secret Mercury 3 16–23 Sept. 2: [Drury Lane] the most Thriving Shambles about Town for Rashers of Leachery and good Penny-worths of Mutton, whether Irish, or Sun-blown.

2. drunk.

1877		Judy 18 May 236: The officer assisted the pastor out, and hinted that he was slightly fly-blown [F&H].
1904		Southland Times (Otago) 13 July 4/4: He is flyblown at this moment, as that is the end to which all faithful servitors of King Alcohol come.

3. (Aus./N.Z.) ruined, penniless, without funds.

1853		C.R. Read What I Heard, Saw, and Did 50: He finds himself stumped, and applies to his friend [...] Not finding any consolation he leaves, when his friend rushes into the billiard room to relate poor Newchum’s misery to his fraternity, who deeply regret that it did not fall to their lot ‘flyblowing him’* [...] (* Being ‘fly blown’ is a Colonial term for being ‘done up’).
1863		Colonist (Nelson, NZ) 25 Sept. 3/2: He also said he was ‘flyblown’. ‘Flyblown’ means ‘no money’.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 4: Fly-blown - To be thoroughly hard up.
1887		Ashburton Guardian (Canterbury) 6 Dec. 2/7: Gibson said he was flyblown. Witness owed Gibson a shilling.
1889		Star 3 Jan. n.p.: Our diggers go into Castlemaine to get their hair cut, and once there, they get on the spree, and come back fly-blown [F&H].
1895		J. Kirby Old Times in Bush 150: Look here, master, these chaps is all ‘fly blown,’ and we would like to give them a ‘touch’ before we go; will you advance ten shillings?
1897		Thames Star (Waikato, NZ) 23 Aug. 2/4: He was stopped by a rough looking stranger, who, after informing him that he was ‘flyblown’ [...[ preferred a request for the gift of half-a-crown.
1900		Examiner (Launceston, Tas.) 27 July 4/4: [He] refers to the syndicate as ‘fly-blown’ [...] a term which in vulgar parlance is supposed to be synonymous with ‘stone-broke’.
1903		J. Furphy Such is Life 16: So he was flyblowed as usual in regard o’ cash.
1914		Observer (Wellington) 21 Dec. 30/2: We was feeling pretty rotten, me and Cobb [...] We was flyblown, broke and stony.
1937		Western Mail (Perth) 18 Mar. 11/4: Ny the time the sweep was drawn he was well and truly ‘flyblown’. No money, no credit and a fearful thirst.
1942		Argus (Melbourne) 18 Apr. 3s/5: When you are ‘flyblown’ you are penniless.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 233/1: flyblown – penniless.
1959		D. Niland Big Smoke 202: That’s when I see this fly-blown old fowlhouse going the knock on my money.
1961		(ref. to 1930s) W.E. Harney Grief, Gaiety and Aborigines 20: Old boots tells yer they’re fly-blown, but new ones mean they’re in the dough.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers xv: Those fly-blown and sandy actionless days .
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 80: flyblown Broke, your money blown. ANZ mid C19.

4. suspected of carrying venereal disease.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 412/2: from ca. 1885.

5. tired out, exhausted.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 412/2: from ca. 1885.