"blue devils" meaning in English

See blue devils in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-blue devils.ogg
Etymology: Originally apparitions supposed to be seen by sufferers of delirium tremens. Head templates: {{en-noun|p}} blue devils pl (plural only)
  1. (slang, idiomatic) Low spirits; depression. Tags: idiomatic, plural, plural-only, slang Synonyms (depression): mulligrubs Translations (low spirits): idée noire [feminine] (French), déprime [feminine] (French), dołek [masculine] (Polish), хандра́ (xandrá) [feminine] (Russian)
    Sense id: en-blue_devils-en-noun-i1yEKW4b Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English pluralia tantum, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with French translations, Terms with Polish translations, Terms with Russian translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 67 33 Disambiguation of English pluralia tantum: 72 28 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 76 24 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 69 31 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 68 32 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 72 28 Disambiguation of Terms with Polish translations: 72 28 Disambiguation of Terms with Russian translations: 72 28 Disambiguation of 'depression': 100 0 Disambiguation of 'low spirits': 90 10
  2. (slang, figuratively) Depressants, especially the barbiturate amobarbital. Tags: figuratively, plural, plural-only, slang
    Sense id: en-blue_devils-en-noun-mU9ZdixB
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  "etymology_text": "Originally apparitions supposed to be seen by sufferers of delirium tremens.",
  "head_templates": [
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      "expansion": "blue devils pl (plural only)",
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "67 33",
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          "_dis": "72 28",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1890, William Morris, News from Nowhere, in the journal The Commonweal. (First published in book form 1890.)",
          "text": "\"[…] the disease is either extinct, or exists in such a mild form that a short course of aperient medicine carries it off. It is sometimes called the Blue-devils now or the Mulleygrubs. Queer names, ain't they?\""
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Low spirits; depression."
      ],
      "id": "en-blue_devils-en-noun-i1yEKW4b",
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          "Low",
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          "depression"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang, idiomatic) Low spirits; depression."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "sense": "depression",
          "word": "mulligrubs"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
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      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "90 10",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "lang_code": "fr",
          "sense": "low spirits",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "idée noire"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 10",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "lang_code": "fr",
          "sense": "low spirits",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "déprime"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 10",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "lang_code": "pl",
          "sense": "low spirits",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "dołek"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 10",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "lang_code": "ru",
          "note": "зелёная тоска́ f (zeljónaja toská, literally “green melancholy”)",
          "sense": "low spirits"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "90 10",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "lang_code": "ru",
          "roman": "xandrá",
          "sense": "low spirits",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "хандра́"
        }
      ]
    },
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      "glosses": [
        "Depressants, especially the barbiturate amobarbital."
      ],
      "id": "en-blue_devils-en-noun-mU9ZdixB",
      "links": [
        [
          "Depressants",
          "depressant"
        ],
        [
          "barbiturate",
          "barbiturate"
        ],
        [
          "amobarbital",
          "amobarbital"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang, figuratively) Depressants, especially the barbiturate amobarbital."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "plural",
        "plural-only",
        "slang"
      ]
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  "head_templates": [
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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          "ref": "1890, William Morris, News from Nowhere, in the journal The Commonweal. (First published in book form 1890.)",
          "text": "\"[…] the disease is either extinct, or exists in such a mild form that a short course of aperient medicine carries it off. It is sometimes called the Blue-devils now or the Mulleygrubs. Queer names, ain't they?\""
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Low spirits; depression."
      ],
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        "(slang, idiomatic) Low spirits; depression."
      ],
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        "idiomatic",
        "plural",
        "plural-only",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
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      "glosses": [
        "Depressants, especially the barbiturate amobarbital."
      ],
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          "barbiturate",
          "barbiturate"
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          "amobarbital"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang, figuratively) Depressants, especially the barbiturate amobarbital."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "plural",
        "plural-only",
        "slang"
      ]
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "depression",
      "word": "mulligrubs"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "lang_code": "fr",
      "sense": "low spirits",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "idée noire"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "lang_code": "fr",
      "sense": "low spirits",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "déprime"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "lang_code": "pl",
      "sense": "low spirits",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "dołek"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "lang_code": "ru",
      "note": "зелёная тоска́ f (zeljónaja toská, literally “green melancholy”)",
      "sense": "low spirits"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "lang_code": "ru",
      "roman": "xandrá",
      "sense": "low spirits",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "хандра́"
    }
  ],
  "word": "blue devils"
}

Download raw JSONL data for blue devils meaning in English (2.6kB)

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-01-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (96027d6 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.