subs. phr. (old).—1. A policeman; a beadle; a guardian of the peace: see BLUE, sense 1.
1598. SHAKESPEARE, 2 Henry IV., v. 4. Dall [addressing beadle] … you BLUE-BOTTLE rogue! you filthy famished correctioner!
1888. MIDDLETON, Michaelmas Term. And to be free from the interruption of BLUE BEADLES, and other bawdy officers.
1852. F. E. SMEDLEY, Lewis Arundel, lxiv. ‘Police, indeed!’ muttered Charley, ‘the General can’t remember that he is out of London … These confounded sulky Austrian officials are rather different customers to deal with from our BLUE-BOTTLES.’—Messrs. A1 and Co.
1864. G. A. SALA, Daily Telegraph, 13 Sept. Caught in his own toils by the BLUE-BOTTLES of Scotland Yard.
1864. Blackwood’s Magazine, 15. He who could summon to his aid every alphabetical BLUE-BOTTLE that ever handled a truncheon.
2. (old).—A serving-man: blue was the usual habit of servants: cf. BLUE-COAT, hence a term of reproach.
1602. DEKKER, The Honest Whore [DODSLEY], Old Plays (REED), iii. 389. You proud varlets, you need not be ashamed to wear BLUE, when your master is one of your fellows.
1608. DEKKER, The Belman of London, sign E., 3. The others act their parts in blew coates, as (if) they were their serving-men.
1822. SCOTT, The Fortunes of Nigel, x. (I., p. 173). I fancy you would love to move to court like him, followed by a round score of old BLUE-BOTTLES. Ibid., xi. My lord, my father … has BLUE-BOTTLES enough to wait on him.
1845. G. P. R. JAMES, Arrah Neil, 325. The personage to whom he addressed himself was one of the serving men of that day, known by the general term of BLUE BOTTLES.
