Green’s Dictionary of Slang

blues n.1

also blue, blue mouldies
[orig. general, white use, despite assumption that the term was created/patented by US blacks. The OED’s first citation is from a letter by the actor David Garrick (11 July 1741): ‘I am far from being quite well, tho not troubled wth ye Blews as I have been’]

1. misery, depression, unhappiness.

1741
175018001850190019502000
2006
[UK]Garrick Letters 11 July (1963) I. 26: I am far from being quite well, tho not troubled wth ye Blews as I have been .
[UK]‘T.B. Junr.’ Pettyfogger Dramatized II vi: Now I must get drunk to-night or the damn’d horrors will get me; I shall be eat up by the blues.
[US]Irving & Paulding Salmagundi (1860) 126: Everybody knows how provoking it is to be cut short in a fit of the blues, by an impertinent question about ‘what is the matter?’.
[US]A.N. Royall Letters from Alabama 18 Feb. 179: If this does not cure you of the blues, nothing that I can give you will.
[US]R.M. Bird City Looking Glass V ii: Troubled with the blues, doctor, very blue – ha, ha, ha! [...] I am resolved to be drunk.
[UK] ‘Hints for an Historical Play’ in Bentley’s Misc. June 598: This gives him the ‘Blues,’ which impairs the delight / He’d have otherwise felt when they dub him a Knight.
[UK]R. Barham ‘The Merchant of Venice’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 54: This step of the Jew’s [...] Gave the newly-made Bridegroom a fit of ‘the Blues’.
[US]Bartlett Dict. Americanisms 39: the blues. A euphemism for blue devils. To have a fit of the blues, is to have a fit of the blue devils, to be low-spirited.
[US]‘Ned Buntline’ G’hals of N.Y. 198: Now that I have reasoned you out of the blues, let’s wet with a little red-eye!
[Ind]Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Apr. 40/2: He traced / [...] / the Blues, ’mongst other causes, / To the use of morning nips.
[UK]G.J. Whyte-Melville Kate Coventry (1865) 76: The moat alone is enough to give one the blues.
[US]Christy and Fox’s Complete Melodist and Joke-Book in Tosches (2001) n.p.: ‘Julius, what’s the matter with you this evening — you seem so down-hearted.’ ‘Sam, I got a touch ob de blues.’.
[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 101/1: Tu ’ell wi’ thes game; et give mi t’ blues t’ b’ sittin’ ’ere loike a bloody dummy.
[US]J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 406: A single day in the quiet town of Jeffersonville was sufficient to give one the blues.
[UK]‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 33: Ali the men in his regiment had thebluess when he left.
[Ire]C.J. Kickham Knocknagow 187: He has cured me of a severe fit of the blues.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Apr. 4/2: [F]eeling that, after an acute attack of the ‘blues,’ we had a desire to be in love and charity with all men – hard though it be; for included in that all are some of the greatest scoundrels yet unhung […].
[UK] ‘’Arry on ’appiness’ in Punch 3 Jan. 4/1: You’ll be thinking I’ve got the blue-mouldies, old man, and you won’t be fur hout.
[UK]Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 17 Aug. 10/1: To drive away a fit of the blues, or pass a social hour [...] we commend our readers to Benjamin Penn.
[Aus]H. Lawson ‘Meeting Old Mates’ in Roderick (1972) 166: Pretty soon you get the blues badly, and feel nearly smothered in there.
[UK]Boy’s Own Paper 8 Dec. 148: When I got back to school, I found Cobb in a fit of blues.
[US]Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 25 Dec. 15/3: I hate the sea [...] it always gets on my nerves and gives me the blues.
[US]Abbeville Press & Banner 28 Apr. 5/5: The ‘blues’ is a subject which deserves the biggest attention [...] We coime in contact with many ‘blues’, [...] the Monday morning ‘blues’ [...] the ‘crazy blues’ very common among boys [...] His girl gives him the ‘high foot’ [...] His heart is sad. He has those ‘crazy blues’.
[US](con. 1917) J. Stevens Mattock 224: I figured he must be down in the dumps with the blues.
[US](con. 1917–19) Dos Passos Nineteen Nineteen in USA (1966) 576: I’ve got the blues / I’ve got the blues / I’ve got the alcoholic blues.
[US]Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 4: They taught me the blues in Pontiac – I mean the blues, blues that I felt from my head to my shoes, really the blues.
[US]N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 80: Early in the morning before day / That’s when my blues come falling down.
[UK]G. Lambert Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 21: I’ve got an attack of the blues.
[US]‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 39: I slipped on a mournful mask, faking the emotions of a dude with hurtful blues.
[UK]J. Sullivan ‘From Prussia With Love’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] She’s just got like baby blues that’s all.
[UK]Guardian G2 19 July 23: The gripping, terrible pathos of his sidekick’s post-divorce blues.
[US]‘The Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 63: The blue was on her face as she held her head down.
[UK]Indep. Rev. 16 Feb. 7: Millions swear by St John’s Wort, the natural way to lift the blues.
[Aus]B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] ‘To The Don, for making it through the prison blues, lotsa love Gabs & Kathy’.

2. a problem.

[US]E. Grogan Ringolevio 221: The agents simply suggested that the brevity of his return home was his own blues.

In phrases

come the blues (v.)

to act sanctimoniously.

[UK]Morn. Post 18 Dec. 3/3: To the chaplain if he’ll listen and come the holy blues.
cry the blues (v.) (also shout the blues)

1. (US) to complain, to whinge, to bemoan one’s lot.

1940
1940195019601970198019902000
2007
[US]J.H. O’Hara Pal Joey 23: Just think a year ago you were the one crying the blues.
[US]B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 216: Miniff came crying the blues louder than ever.
[US]Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 25 Feb. 20/1: Harlem mammas shouting the blues.
Courier-Post (Camden, NJ) 2 Nov. 8/6: Reading all those yes votes crying the blues must bring tears to the eyes.
[US]Petaluma Argus-Courier (CA) 2 Dec. 8/1: Folks who were crying the blues because it didn’t rain, will soon by crying the blues if it doesn’t stop.
[US]Courier Times (Levittown, PA) 4 Feb. 6/5: Everything is crying the blues business-wise.
[US]J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 64: He comes back to Bel-Air and cries the blues to the pro. Tells him he’s got to see his dying aunt, or go to the hospital for some tests.
[US]Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 179: He keeps crying the blues about his damn Easter outfit.
[US]UGK ‘Trill Niggaz Don’t Die’ 🎵 Some niggaz getting bruised, some always crying the blues.

2. to mourn, to regret.

[US]Mad mag. Jan.–Feb. 48: So how come you don’t cry the blues for him?

3. to make a request, to demand.

[US]Simon & Burns ‘Boys of Summer’ Wire ser. 4 ep. 1 [TV script] They want one debate for crime and safety [...] Tony Gray cryin’ the same blues.
in the blue [note WWI milit. in the blue, referring to troops who were in difficulties, e.g. from a failed attack] (Aus.)

1. in debt, in difficulties.

1931
19351940
1945
[Aus]Mail (Adelaide) 21 Feb. 2/5: The scheme has been kicked clean off its actuarial and insurance basis and is now in the blue.
[Aus]Baker Aus. Lang.

2. out of control.

1941
19451950
1955
[Aus]Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
[Aus]N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 234/2: in the blue – out of control.
in the blues

1. suffering a fit of delirium tremens [blue devils n.].

1870
19001950
1984
[Aus]Mercury (Hobart) 23 Apr. 2/5: [from the Stranraer Free Press] [...] in the shakes, in the blues.
[UK]Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 104: from ca. 1850.

2. depressed.

1866
187018751880
a.1882
[UK]J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 115: Reg’lar in the blues you climbs up into your wan.
[UK]T.B. Reed Fifth Form at St Dominic’s (1890) 214: ‘I don’t mean to punish myself by getting in the blues’.
sing the blues (v.) (also cry the blues)

to complain, to whinge.

1918
192019301940195019601970198019902000
2005
[US]A.C. Huber Diary of a Doughboy 19 Sept. 🌐 And I’m not singing the ‘Blues’ either, for it’s a actual fact for I feel like my stomach is touching my backbone.
[US]Lincoln Jrnl Star (NE) 5 July 23/1: When you unload your troubles on a friend [...] you are ‘singing the blues’.
[US]J. Lait Gangster Girl 3: You came in here carryin’ the banner and singin’ the blues.
[US](con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 361: ‘You singin’ the blues again?’ asked Slug.
[US]W. Winchell On Broadway 16 Dec. [synd. col.] All look healthy, even though they still sing the blues about ‘No dough.’.
[US]H. Hunt East of Farewell 112: Pipe down [...] You’re always singin’ the blues.
[US]Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 164: ‘The hell with it, Josh,’ I sighed, singing the blues for real.
[US](con. 1919) E. Asinof Eight Men Out 213: Kid Gleason sat in the lobby of St. Louis’s Planters Hotel and cried the blues: ‘I’d like to quit today and go home for good. I’d like to get away from baseball forever’.
[UK]N. Cohn Yes We have No 186: I don’t mean to sing the blues.
[US]E. Weiner Big Boat to Bye-Bye 1: Normally when I sing the blues I keep it in the shower and spare the staff. But this wasn’t normal.
sob the blues (v.)

to be very unhappy.

1923
1930194019501960197019801990
1991
Courier-Jrnl (Louisville, KY) 10 Sept. 12/5: They’re all ‘sobbing the blues’ — squawking their heads off.
[US]Akron Beacon Jrnl (OH) 4 Oct. 19/5: Businessmen are sitting around sucking their thumbs and sobbing the blues.
[US](con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 538: With [...] my old man sobbing the blues every night about how broke he is.
[US]Altoona Trib. (PA) 12 July 9/3: Man, we’re really sobbing the blues over this.
[US]Arizona Republican (Phoeniz, AZ) 15 Jan. 47/7: [small ad.] Seller sobbing the blues & will sacrifice this 4 Br plus huge farmhouse.
[US]Philadelphia Inquirer (PA) 16 Apr. 66/2: Pressure from a parent or boss may have you sobbing the blues.
Star Gaz. (Elmira, NY) 19 Apr. 11/4: After months of sobbing the blues over New York [the] executive’s office is singing a happier tune.