blue law
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of blue law
An Americanism dating back to 1775–85
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
MERRILLVILLE, Ind. — It is still illegal to buy alcohol at a liquor store on Sunday in Indiana, a red state holding fast to an old blue law.
From New York Times • Dec. 23, 2015
An 1822 blue law still forbids Mississippians to attend bearbaiting, cockfights, bullfights and any other routine amusements of a Sabbath.
From Time Magazine Archive
The New York blue law code is particularly messy.
From Time Magazine Archive
This 68-year-old blue law, a relic of Anthony Comstock's crusades, is widely disregarded, seldom enforced.
From Time Magazine Archive
We had been assured by a newspaper friend that Washington was so full of inventors and blue law fans that if you "dropped a match anywhere a nut would step on it."
From Turns about Town by Holliday, Robert Cortes
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
