Great Britain
Preserved but no longer current.
The members were distin- guished by wearing a piece of narrow blue ribbon in the buttonhole of the coat. From this symbol the phrase Blue Ribbon Army came in time to be applied to the body of teetotallers generally, whether connected with the original society or not. In 1883 the society took the name of Gospel Temperance Union.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Examples
Tatoeba sentence #9673047 (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 “Great Britain” mean?
The members were distin- guished by wearing a piece of narrow blue ribbon in the buttonhole of the coat. From this symbol the phrase Blue Ribbon Army came in time to be applied to the body of teetotallers generally, whether connected with the original society or not. In 1883 the society took the name of Gospel Temperance Union.
Is “Great Britain” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.