blue ruin

English

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Noun

blue ruin (uncountable)

1. (slang, now archaic) Low-end gin, usually home-made.
   • 1985, Tom Waits, 9th and Hennepin:

     ‘Till you're full of rag water and bitters and blue ruin’

   • 1835, Edgar Allan Poe, King Pest:

     ‘tell us who the devil ye all are, and what business ye have here, rigged off like the foul fiends, and swilling the snug blue ruin stowed away for the winter by my honest shipmate, Will Wimble the undertaker!’

   • 1830, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford Ch. XVI:

     ‘As soon as this "sentiment" had been duly drunk, and Mr. Bagshot had dried his tears and applied himself to his favourite drink,--which, by the way, was "blue ruin,"--the work of division took place.’

   • 1841, Thomas Noel, Rymes and roundelayes, page 197:

     SIR DEATH is a grim old fellow ; Yet rather facetious at times, When "blue ruin" makes him mellow, And he chants his Stygian rhymes.

   • 1873, J. Fogerty, Lauterdale, page 17:

     "Blue-ruin!" exclaimed Josiah, in amazement. "It's another name for cold gin," replied Constable Giblet...

   • 1996, A. J. Liebling et al., A Neutral Corner: Boxing Essays, page 35:

     The fighters joined their admirers in lushing Blue Ruin, which was just another name for Daffy, or gin, and Heavy Wet, which was ale.

   • 2005, Edith Layton, Gypsy Lover, page 133:

     Jug bitten was all you were. You had enough blue ruin to make any man stagger.

2. Complete and utter ruin, desolation.
   • 1934, Philip Gibbs, European journey, page 116:

     "It's blue ruin." He laughed for the third time. I notice that people always laugh when they prophesy blue ruin.

   • 1921, Elbert E. Stevens, Labor digest, page 21:

     For a nation to wait in a market of heavily reduced prices for the still lower prices of blue ruin, even if it could wait, would be economic suicide...

   • 1908, House of Commons of Canada, Debates: Official Report, page 398:

     But, Sir, hon. members of the government, led by that old knight of blue ruin, have done something infinitely worse than cry blue ruin.

   • 1899, Senate of Canada, Debates of the Senate of the Dominion of Canada, page 1161:

     I was amused at the hon. Minister of Justice telling the hon. leader of the opposition that he was preaching blue ruin now. A few years ago the hon. minister himself was preaching blue ruin. The people of this country should understand that when one party is in power it is all lovely with them, and the other party is preaching blue ruin. I know that the gentlemen forming the ministry, and their supporters, always preached blue ruin until they got into power...

Usage notes

Although "blue ruin" began as a generic nickname, several brands later adopted the name in different times and places.