subs. phr. (common).—Spirits so bad in quality that they can only be compared to vitriol, of which BLUE-STONE is also a nickname in the north of England and Scotland.
1880. Blackwood’s Magazine, June, 786. The bar was still thronged, and the effects of the mixture of spirits of wine, BLUESTONE, and tobacco-juice, were to be seen on a miserable wretch who lay stretched in the courtyard.
1882. W. G. BLACK, Notes and Queries, 6 S., v., 348. A witness was asked in the Northern Police Court, Glasgow, a few weeks ago, a question relative to the quality of certain whiskey said to have been supplied to him. ‘It wasn’t whiskey,’ he said, ‘it was nothing but BLUESTONE.’ ‘But what?’ inquired the magistrate. ‘BLUESTONE, your honour,’ was the answer—‘poison.’ I heard the question and answer, and there can be no doubt that the word was used as a familiar one.
