Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Low spirits; depression of mind.
- [With allusion to the apparitions of such delirium.] Delirium tremens.
Wiktionary
- n. idiomatic low spirits; depression
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. apparitions supposed to be seen by persons suffering with delirium tremens; hence, very low spirits.
- n. See under Blue.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a state of depression
Examples
“That was welcome, I can tell you: the thirty-mile ride from Ferozepore, skirting south in case of gorracharra scouts, and with only six N.C. sowars for escort, had given me the blue devils and done my game ankle no good at all, and on reaching Moodkee I'd had a most horrid shock.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘blue devils’.
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blue phrases/words
how blue is used
blue and white, blue apron, blue-aproned, blue-arsed fly, blue asbestos, blue ash, blue-assed fly, blue baby, blue-backed, blue bag, blue balls, blue band and 370 more...
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I Am A Starfish. I Speak With Paint.
List title totally stolen from she. Right, the stock entry for this list should be a two-word phrase where one of the words denotes a colour; even better if the expression has some metaphoric value...
black dog, tangerine dream, orange roughy, blue moon, blackguard, white house, purple rain, grey nurse, green thumb, yellow fever, sacre bleu, palo verde and 159 more...
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Old Nick and his personal effects
Words & phrases with "devil" in the name - there's a deuce of a lot
devil's matchstick, devil's dung, devil's club, hickory horned devil, deviled egg, blue devils, printer's devil, devil-fish, devil-cart, devil crab, devil dance, dare-devil and 46 more...
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Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Down in the dumps, feeling blue? Here, then, is a list for you...
feeling blue, down in the dumps, blue devils, mulligrubs, mubblefubbles, melancholy, lugubrious, gloomy gus, eeyore, doleful, woeful, woebegone and 86 more...
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Gil Blas
Interesting words and usages from Smollett's 1749 translation of Lesage's L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane
reck, durance, rhodomontade, hangdog, trap, lustre, pin, boggle, dandle, birthday suit, colic, gripes and 238 more...
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Colour my Wordie!
Words and short phrases with colour names in them
blackguard, black box, black market, blue moon, blue-collar worker, true-blue, blue-blooded, pink slip, tickled pink, pink elephant, white elephant, white gold and 81 more...
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Maladies
dhobi itch, kerion, tinea, scabies, sarcoptid, urtication, dropsy, lymphedema, papilledema, chemosis, anasarca, vapors and 55 more...
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via Poplollies & Bellibones
It's that time again!
acclumsid, acersecomic, adam's ale, afterling, assything, bawdreaming, bedswerver, spousebreak, beek, bellibone, bellytimber, bubble-bow and 86 more...
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Sweet spirits of cats a-fighting
Moonshine words and some terms used for the D.T.'s.
white lightning, sugar whiskey, skull cracker, popskull, bush whiskey, stump, stumphole, 'splo, ruckus juice, rotgut, catdaddy, mule kick and 34 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for blue devils.

yarb A fortnight was pretty well without seeing a soul but my keeper, who had orders that I should want for nothing in the bread and water way! Whenever he made his appearance I was inclined to be sociable, and to parley a little to get rid of the blue devils; but this majestic minister was above reply, he was mum!
- Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 1 ch. 12 Sep 11, 2008
yarb Citation on atrabilarious. Sep 2, 2008