blue murder

English

Etymology

From French morbleu (“gadzooks, zounds”, interjection) (archaic), from mort bleu (“blue death”), a minced oath of mort Dieu (“death of God”).

Noun

blue murder (uncountable)

1. (usually in phrases such as 'scream/howl/yell/shriek blue murder') A loud protest or angry outburst.
   • 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 517:

     Here men would murder for five dollars, here men would seek divorce because their wives sighed at the handsomeness of the film star P. Ramlee, here the very night-roaming dogs screamed blue murder if another dog bit their little toe.

   • 1998, John C[harles] G[erald] Röhl, translated by Jeremy Gaines and Rebecca Wallach, Young Wilhelm: The Kaiser's Early Life, 1859–1888, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 107:

     [I]t was her [Princess Charlotte of Prussia's] increasingly violent tantrums that caused her parents the greatest concern. Shortly before the child's second birthday we read, 'Ditta has such outbreaks of rage & stubbornness that she screams blue murder.'

   • 2001, Gareth Creer, “Tripping to the Seaside, Double-quick”, in Big Sky, London: Doubleday, →ISBN:

     I pull her [a car] back into third, boot her up to sixty and the outreach bungalows go to blur. The gearbox screams blue murder, but we're getting there, and the newspaper kid stops, turns on his BMX. He fades to a speck in the mirror until we are once again on our own, […]

   • 2001, Isabel Wolff, Out of the Blue, London: HarperCollins, ISBN 978-0-00-651341-4; republished Don Mills, Ont.: Mira Books, 2012, ISBN 978-0-7783-1366-3, page 144:

     And I was going to shout at him. I was going to scream blue murder. I was going to tell him just what I thought of that.

   • 2010, Erica Wells, Lorraine Regel, The Survival Guide for Rookie Moms: Things You Need to Know that No One ever Tells You, Mississauga, Ont.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:

     The first time he was offered a bottle, my boy screamed blue murder; the second time, he screamed blue murder; the third time, my husband fed him and he screamed blue murder; the fourth time, he drank it without a whimper.

   • 2011, Jeff Smith, Polly: Memories of an East End Girl, Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, →ISBN:

     [H]e didn't turn the light on in the garage and crept through in the dark as quietly as he could until, that is, he stepped on a piece of wood with half a dozen nails hammered through it! He let out the most enormous yell and came hopping into the kitchen screaming blue murder about leaving such dangerous things lying around. As soon as he realised what was going on, the youngest boy also started screaming blue murder about his dad wrecking his model of a boat.

Synonyms

• bloody murder

Translations

scream blue murder — see scream blue murder