beaten black and blue
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
So that the skin is black and blue with the marks of the beating.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Examples
He was beaten black and blue.Anh ta bị đánh bầm dập.
Tatoeba sentence #294159 (CC BY 2.0 FR, tatoeba.org, retrieved 2026-07-31)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “beaten black and blue” mean?
So that the skin is black and blue with the marks of the beating.
Is “beaten black and blue” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.