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Black and blue

adj, verb, slang

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having obvious bruises of the skin, typically from falling or being hit or punched. colloquial, not-comparable

    "My arm is still black and blue from slipping on the ice yesterday."

Verb
  1. 1
    to bruise, to strike (a person in such a way as to discolour the skin without breaking it). colloquial, slang

    "... 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[…]"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English blak and blo, blac and bla (“very dark, bruised”), equivalent to black + and + blow (dialectal term for blue). By surface analysis, black + and + blue.

Etymology 2

From Middle English blak and blo, blac and bla (“very dark, bruised”), equivalent to black + and + blow (dialectal term for blue). By surface analysis, black + and + blue.

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