subs. phr. (colloquial).—A bullet: also BLUE PLUMB and BLUE WHISTLER: see PILL.

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  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Surfeited with a BLUE PLUMB; wounded with a bullet; a sortment of George R—’s BLUE PLUMBS, a volley of ball, shot from soldiers’ firelocks.

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  1834.  W. H. AINSWORTH, Rookwood (1884), 95.

        Believe me, there is not a game, my brave boys,
To compare with the game of high toby;
No rapture can equal the toby man’s joys,
To blue devils, BLUE PLUMBS give the go by.

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  1861.  New York Tribune (Let. from Missouri), Nov. 10. Between BLUE PILLS, halters, and the penitentiary, we shall soon work off this element of rascaldom and horse-thieves.

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