blue coats

blue coats

slang The police (because they often wear blue uniforms). We always like to show our support for the blue coats by donating to police charities.
See also: blue, coat
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

blue coats

verb
See blue boys
See also: blue, coat
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • blue boys
  • blue suit
  • blue suits
  • boys and girls in blue
  • blue and white
  • out of a clear (blue) sky
  • out of the blue
  • boys in blue
  • true blue
  • damn it to blue blazes
References in classic literature
And now, in this burning tomb, this subterranean volcano, seek the king's guards with their blue coats laced with silver.
The Man in the Iron Mask
"And who can that person be who has taken it into his head to wrap himself up in a blue coat embroidered with green?"
Count of Monte Cristo
He was dressed in a long-skirted blue coat, with buttons below the waist at the back, and wore high boots wrinkled over the ankles and straight over the calf, with big galoshes drawn over them.
Anna Karenina
One of them in a blue coat by himself, was busily hunting for dandelions.--"Cousin Peter!
Original Peter Rabbit Books
The ladies were somewhat more fortunate, for they had the advantage of ascertaining from an upper window that he wore a blue coat, and rode a black horse.
Pride and Prejudice
Instead of shoes, the old man wore boots with turnover tops and his blue coat had wide cuffs of gold braid.
The Patchwork Girl of Oz
I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow--a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white.
Treasure Island
The friend was a charming young man of not much more than fifty, dressed in a very bright blue coat with resplendent buttons, black trousers, and the thinnest possible pair of highly-polished boots.
The only observable alterations in his appearance were, that he wore a brighter blue coat, with a white silk lining, black tights, black silk stockings, and pumps, and a white waistcoat, and was, if possible, just a thought more scented.
The Posthumous Papers Of The Pickwick Club
One gusty, raw day at the end of April--the rain whipping the pavement of that ancient street where the old Slaughters' Coffee- house was once situated--George Osborne came into the coffee-room, looking very haggard and pale; although dressed rather smartly in a blue coat and brass buttons, and a neat buff waistcoat of the fashion of those days.
Vanity Fair
He is of a worthy presence, with his light-grey hair and whiskers, his fine shirt-frill, his pure-white waistcoat, and his blue coat with bright buttons always buttoned.
Bleak House