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black and blue. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
black and blue, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
black and blue in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English blak and blo, blac and bla (“very dark, bruised”), equivalent to black + and + blow (dialectal term for blue).
Adjective
black and blue (not comparable)
- (colloquial, of a person) Having obvious bruises of the skin, typically from falling or being hit or punched.
- My arm is still black and blue from slipping on the ice yesterday.
1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 167:The whole benighted, blooming crew,
The Puddin'-thieves, the Usher too,
Are being beaten black and blue
With bottles on the pate.
Translations
Verb
black and blue (third-person singular simple present black and blues, present participle black and blueing or black and bluing, simple past and past participle black and blued)
- (colloquial or slang) to bruise, to strike (a person in such a way as to discolour the skin without breaking it)
1991, John Vernon, Peter Doyle: A Novel, Random House (NY):... he black-and-blued her eyes he cooked a big meal to make it up to her. He went out and stole a neighbor's hog or caught some rice birds ... This was a country of rice plantations, but Twig and Peggy lived upriver, where rice […]