TO BE BLOWED, verb. phr.—To be cursed, to be sent about one’s business. BLOWED is euphemistic for ‘damned’; to all intents and purposes little more than a thinly-veiled oath. Hotten says that Tom Hood used to tell the following story, which tho’ long is worth immortality:—‘I was once asked to contribute to a new journal, not exactly gratuitously, but at a very small advance upon nothing—and avowedly because the work had been planned according to that estimate. However, I accepted the terms conditionally—that is to say, provided the principle could be properly carried out. Accordingly, I wrote to my butcher, baker, and other tradesmen, informing them that it was necessary, for the sake of cheap literature, and the interest of the reading public, that they should furnish me with their several commodities at a very trifling per-centage above cost price. It will be sufficient to quote the answer of the butcher:—“Sir,—Respectin’ your note, Cheap literater BE BLOWED! Butchers must live as well as other pepel—and if so be you or the readin’ publick wants to have meat at prime cost, you must buy your own beastesses, and kill yourselves.—I remain, etc., John Stokes.”’

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  Cf., BLOW ME!

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  1835.  DICKENS, Sketches by Boz, 50. Others remonstrating with the said Thomas Sludberry on the impropriety of his conduct, the said Thomas Sludberry repeated the aforesaid expression, ‘YOU BE BLOWED.’

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  1863.  JEAFFRESON, Live It Down, III., 249. (Cries of ‘Chair, Chair,’ and ‘Order, order.’) ‘Order BE BLOWED!’ exclaimed the infuriated Mr. H.

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  1864.  DICKENS, Our Mutual Friend, II., v. ‘HOLIDAY BE BLOWED!’ said Fledgely, entering, ‘What have you got to do with holidays?’

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  1877.  W. H. THOMSON, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, iii. 244. ‘No,’ says she, ‘we’ve got some more besides that, and enough, too, to take us to France. BLOWED, old man, if we don’t go to Paris, and there we can get 300l. for them.’

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  1879.  Punch’s Almanac, 7. Seasonable Slang. For Spring.—You BE BLOWED! For Summer.—I’ll warm yer! For Autumn.—Not so blooming green! For Winter.—An ice little game all round.

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  1889.  Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, Aug. 3, 242, 2. ‘BLOWED if I’d have made her Mrs. Juggins, if I’d have known she wor going te make a footstool of me!’

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  1900.  KIPLING, Stalky & Co., 4. Turkey, you’d better covet a butterfly-net from somewhere. I’m BLOWED if I do, said McTurk simply, with immense feeling.

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  1900.  PERCY WHITE, The West End, 107. I’ll see the letters ‘BLOWED’ before I look at one of them!

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