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blues and twos

noun

Etymology

Originally 1960s police slang, from the blue colour of the lights and the two-tone sound of the siren. Popularised by Blues and Twos, a documentary series broadcast on ITV from 1993.

Definitions

  1. The flashing lights and loud siren of an emergency vehicle.

    • Five minutes later, Bella, efficient as ever, radioed him back with an address near Hove station, about ten minutes drive away, going soberly, or ninety seconds with the blues and twos on.
    • The new directive says risks associated with the use of so-called ‘blues and twos’ by coastguard vehicles “need to be mitigated”.

  2. [of an emergency vehicle] with the blues and twos switched on

    • If Mondo was alive, he'd be long gone, the ambulance hurtling blues and twos to the nearest hospital.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for blues and twos. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA