blue devils

American  

plural noun

1. low spirits; depression.

2. delirium tremens.

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blue devils British  

plural noun

1. a fit of depression or melancholy

2. an attack of delirium tremens

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Etymology

Origin of blue devils

First recorded in 1780–90

Example Sentences

He loves to think he suffers, and keeps a pet sorrow, a blue-devil familiar, that goes with him everywhere, like Paracelsus's black dog.

From Among My Books First Series by Lowell, James Russell

And on the second night Recklow's men built fires and camped carelessly beside the brilliant warmth, while "mountain mutton" frizzled on pointed sticks and every blue-devil smacked his lips.

From In Secret by Chambers, Robert W. (Robert William)

I then told him all my mishaps in Sorombo, as well as of the "blue-devil" frights that had seized all my men.

From The Discovery of the Source of the Nile by Speke, John Hanning