blue mass

noun

Pharmacology.

1. Also called mercury mass. a preparation of metallic mercury and other ingredients, used for making blue pills.

2. blue pill.

Word History and Origins

Origin of blue mass¹

An Americanism dating back to 1850–55

Example Sentences

Even the prominent Catholic masses he has attended could be justified by non-Catholics as political in nature: one at the culture war–infused Ave Maria University, and one at a “Blue Mass” for police officers who died while on duty.

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She recounts a historian's quest to prove that Abraham Lincoln took mercury-based medication called blue mass — possibly for constipation and depression.

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Well, for one, Lincoln probably would have gobbled a handful of the blue mass upon discovering that a woman was running the House 60 years before suffrage, and that there were 53 black House Democrats at a time when most African Americans were enslaved.

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The Blue Mass is a tradition that began 80 years ago after 310 police were killed in 1930 — the most deaths ever recorded in the single year in the U.S., according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

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This year’s Blue Mass is the region’s 24th celebration of the event.

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