Idiom
blue devils
Meaning
Low spirits; depression.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He has the blue devils today.”
“Listening to sad music always brings on the blue devils.”
“The long, dark winter often gives her the blue devils, so she tries to stay active.”
“After the excitement of the wedding ended and all the guests went home, he felt a sudden case of the blue devils in the empty house.”
“Despite his outward success, he frequently struggled with the blue devils, finding it difficult to maintain his composure during the quiet hours of the evening.”
Examples
simple
“He has the blue devils today.”
“Listening to sad music always brings on the blue devils.”
contextual
“The long, dark winter often gives her the blue devils, so she tries to stay active.”
“After the excitement of the wedding ended and all the guests went home, he felt a sudden case of the blue devils in the empty house.”
complex
“Despite his outward success, he frequently struggled with the blue devils, finding it difficult to maintain his composure during the quiet hours of the evening.”
Origin
Attested as a term for melancholy or low spirits by the late 18th century, the phrase originally denoted the terrifying apparitions supposed to be seen by those suffering from delirium tremens. The hallucinations were visualised as distinct demonic entities, their presence indicating a physical and mental collapse that was considered socially inconvenient and medically taxing. By the 19th century, the devilry had been abstracted into a general state of despondency, though the clinical origin remained rooted in the tremors of the severe alcoholic.
Key words
Related idioms
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