subs. phr. (colloquial).—Extreme fright; nervousness; or dread. [FUNK = to stink through fear; Wedgwood connects it with the Walloon funker = to smoke].
1856. T. HUGHES, Tom Brown’s School-days, II. ii. 196. If I was going to be flogged next minute, I should be in a BLUE FUNK.
1861. Macmillan’s Magazine, 211. I was in a real BLUE FUNK.
1861. The Saturday Review, Nov. 23, 534. We encounter … the miserable Dr. Blandling in what is called a BLUE FUNK.
1871. MAXWELL, Life (1882), xvi., 382. Certainly Χλωρὸν δέος is the Homeric for a BLUE FUNK.
1900. KIPLING, Stalky & Co., 16. Even suppose we were miles out of bounds, no one could get at us through this wussy, unless he knew the tunnel. Isn’t this better than lyin’ up just behind the coll.—in a BLUE FUNK every time we had a smoke?
