black and blue

See also: black-and-blue

English

Alternative forms

• black-and-blue (attributive, before noun only)

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)

1. (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

covered in bruises

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鼻青脸肿的, 青一块紫一块的

• Dutch: bont en blauw
• Finnish: mustelmilla (fi)
• German: grün und blau (literally “green and blue”)
• Latin: līvidus (la)
• Swedish: gul och blå (literally “yellow and blue”)
• Turkish: mosmor (tr)

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)

1. (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 […]

   • 1995, Ol' Dirty Bastard (lyrics and music), “Protect Ya Neck II the Zoo”, in Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version‎^[1]:

     Come on through I black and blue your whole crew
     Then I get Rudy with the Hong Kong Phoo'