The name given to the battle fought outside the village of Waterloo, near Brussels, on June 18, 1815, in which Napoleon was decisively and finally defeated. Hence (with a, his): Something which is a ‘settler’; a decisive and final contest; chiefly in the phrase to meet one’s Waterloo.
1816. Byron, To Moore, 5 Dec. It [Armenian] is … a Waterloo of an Alphabet.
1838. Public Ledger (Philad.), 8 Dec., 4/1. His imperial highness has at length, however, met his Waterloo, and will most probably find a St. Helena, as he is arrested under circumstances which can hardly fail to secure his conviction.
1842. J. Aiton, Domest. Econ. (1857), 68. If there must be a Waterloo, let it be a conflict for all the minister’s rights, so that he may never require to go to law in his lifetime again.
1887. Times (weekly ed.), 24 June, 9/3. He will have fought and lost his Waterloo.
b. The name of a bright blue tint (see quots.).
1823. Moore, Country Dance & Quadrille, 84. Eyes of blue (Eyes of that bright, victorious tint, Which English maids call ‘Waterloo’).
1871. Mrs. H. Wood, Dene Hollow, xxxviii. The frock … was of that dark bright blue colour called Waterloo, after the somewhat recent battle of Waterloo.
c. attrib.: † Waterloo bang-up, = Waterloo cracker; Waterloo blue (cf. b. above); † Waterloo cracker, a kind of firework (cf. CRACKER 6); † Waterloo fly, an artificial fly with blue wings; † Waterloo helmet (see quot.).
1826. Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 1310. His companion cracks a *Waterloo bang-up in their faces.
1858. Miss Sewell, Ursula, vii. There she was … dressed out in a bright blue silk dress,—what is called a *Waterloo blue.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 430/1. I took 15s. … for *waterloo crackers and ball crackers (the common trade names), ‘waterloo’ being the ‘pulling crackers.’
1878. Stevenson, Inland Voy., 72. The child was letting off Waterloo crackers all over the floor.
1837. Kirkbride, Northern Angler, 61. The *Waterloo Fly.
1887. Pall Mall Budget, 27 Jan., 16/1. The uniform of the old Life Guards includes a *Waterloo helmet, with crest and plume at the side.
