blue devil—
1. (also: blueweed) a coarse prickly weed with spikes of blue flowers:
- Blue devil is a coarse biennial Old World herb introduced as a weed in eastern North America.
2. (Drug users) a blue capsule or tablet containing barbiturate (also: bluebird):
- I am spending far less than I was while taking those little blue devil pills.
Note: The expression does not correlate in meaning with the phrase blue devil fish—a reef fish (Paraplesiops bleekeri) inhabiting exposed reefs from 3 to 30 meters deep:
- Blue devil fish are easily identified by the blue and white-banded body with yellow pectoral fins.
blue devils—
1. a feeling of depression; despondency:
- By the time that he had eaten his soup and drank a glass of wine, he had got rid of the fit of blue devils.
2. the apparitions seen in delirium tremens:
- They, by a continued series of intoxication, become subject to what is popularly called the Blue Devils.