blue law
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of blue law
An Americanism dating back to 1775–85
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
MERRILLVILLE, Ind. — It is still illegal to buy alcohol at a liquor store on Sunday in Indiana, a red state holding fast to an old blue law.
From New York Times ● Dec. 23, 2015
Boyish-looking Fig Newton, Cherokee-blooded and a onetime vaudevillian, promoted seven separate petitions, ranging from a Sunday closing blue law to freedom for Political Prisoner Tom Mooney.
From Time Magazine Archive
Ever since, every blue law seems inevitably to have picked up similar variations.
From Time Magazine Archive
The New York blue law code is particularly messy.
From Time Magazine Archive
A favorite assertion was that I was enforcing a "blue" law, an obsolete law that had never before been enforced.
From Theodore Roosevelt; an Autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
