English
blue
see also: Blue
Pronunciation
  • enPR: blo͞o, IPA: /bluː/
  • (Wales) IPA: /blɪʊ̯/
  • (GA) IPA: /blu/
  • (obsolete) enPR: blyo͞o, IPA: /bljuː/
Adjective

blue (comparative bluer, superlative bluest)

  1. Of the colour blue.
    the deep blue sea
  2. (informal) Depressed, melancholic, sad.
    • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326 ↗:
      “Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better. […]”
    • 1904, Guy Wetmore Carryl, The Transgression of Andrew Vane, Henry Holt and Company, page 140:
      "Will you play some of the 'Garden' now?" she asked. "I think I should like it. I'm just the least bit blue."
    • 1978, Michael Johnson, "Bluer Than Blue"
      But I'm bluer than blue / Sadder than sad.
  3. Pale, without redness or glare; said of a flame.
    The candle burns blue.
  4. (politics) Supportive of, run by (a member of), pertaining to, or dominated by a political party represented by the colour blue.
    1. (politics, in particular, in the US) Supportive of, run by (a member of), pertaining to, or dominated by the Democratic Party. [late 20th c.]
      I live in a blue constituency.  Congress turned blue in the mid-term elections.
    2. (AU, politics) Supportive of or related to the Liberal Party.
      Illawarra turns blue in Liberal washout
  5. (astronomy) Of the higher-frequency region of the part of the electromagnetic spectrum which is relevant in the specific observation.
  6. (of steak) Extra rare; left very raw and cold.
  7. (of a dog or cat) Having a coat of fur of a slaty gray shade.
  8. (archaic) Severe or overly strict in morals; gloomy.
    blue and sour religionists;  blue laws
  9. (archaic, of women) literary; bluestockinged.
    • The ladies were very blue and well informed.
  10. (particle physics) Having a color charge of blue.
  11. (entertainment) Risque or obscene
    His material is too blue for prime-time
Antonyms
  • (having blue as its colour) nonblue, unblue
  • (having blue as its colour charge) antiblue
Translations Translations Translations Translations Noun

blue

  1. (countable and uncountable) The colour of the clear sky or the deep sea, between green and violet in the visible spectrum, and one of the primary additive colours for transmitted light; the colour obtained by subtracting red and green from white light using magenta and cyan filters; or any colour resembling this.
     
     
  2. A blue dye or pigment.
  3. Any of several processes to protect metal against rust.
  4. Blue clothing
    The boys in blue marched to the pipers.
  5. (in the plural) A blue uniform. See blues.
  6. (slang) A member of law enforcement
  7. The sky, literally or figuratively.
    The ball came out of the blue and cracked his windshield.
    His request for leave came out of the blue.
  8. The ocean; deep waters.
  9. The far distance; a remote or distant place.
    • 1978, Peter Hathaway Capstick, Death in the Long Grass (ISBN 1466803924):
      The problem with buffalo as well as most African antelopes as a steady diet is that they have very little marbling or body fat and, after six months out in the blue, one dreams at night of a T-bone steak sizzling in great globules of yellow fat.
    • 2000, Thomas C. Barger, Timothy J. Barger, Out in the Blue: Letters from Arabia, 1937 to 1940 : a Young American Geologist Explores the Deserts of Early Saudi Arabia (ISBN 9780970115737)
  10. Anything blue, especially to distinguish it from similar objects differing only in color.
  11. A dog or cat with a slaty gray coat.
  12. (snooker) One of the colour balls used in snooker, with a value of five points.
  13. (entomology) Any of the butterflies of the subfamily Polyommatinae in the family Lycaenidae, most of which have blue on their wings.
  14. A bluefish.
  15. (Australia, colloquial) An argument.
    • 2008, Cheryl Jorgensen, The Taint, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=F99evgycTP4C&pg=PA135&dq=%22a+blue+between%22+-intitle:%22blue%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=opL5TvasAqvImQXiv7SCAg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22a%20blue%20between%22%20-intitle%3A%22blue%22&f=false page 135],
      If they had a blue between themselves, they kept it there, it never flowed out onto the streets to innocent people — like a lot of things that have been happenin′ on the streets today.
    • 2009, John Gilfoyle, Remember Cannon Hill, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=jDeZFM60788C&pg=PA102&dq=%22a+blue+between%22+-intitle:%22blue%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=fY75TpriGKTJmQXb3JHQBQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22a%20blue%20between%22%20-intitle%3A%22blue%22&f=false page 102],
      On another occasion, there was a blue between Henry Daniels and Merv Wilson down at the pig sale. I don′t know what it was about, it only lasted a minute or so, but they shook hands when it was over and that was the end of it.
    • 2011, Julietta Jameson, Me, Myself and Lord Byron, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=75tL7CDr-CoC&pg=PT23&dq=%22a+blue+between%22+-intitle:%22blue%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=lZP5TsTfKeqamQWzi9WLAg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22a%20blue%20between%22%20-intitle%3A%22blue%22&f=false unnumbered page],
      I was a bit disappointed. Was that it? No abuse like Lord Byron had endured? Not that I was wishing that upon myself. It was just that a blue between my parents, albeit a raging, foul, bile-spitting hate fest, was not exactly Charles Dickens.
  16. A liquid with an intense blue colour, added to a laundry wash to prevent yellowing of white clothes.
  17. (British) A type of firecracker.
  18. (now, historical) A bluestocking.
    • 1781, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin 2001, p. 172:
      Lord Lyttelton's Life by Dr Johnson […] which a whole tribe of Blues, with Mrs Montagu at their Head, have Vowed to execrate and revenge […].
  19. (particle physics) One of the three color charges for quarks.
Translations Translations Verb

blue (blues, present participle blueing; past and past participle blued)

  1. (ergative) To make or become blue.
  2. (transitive, metallurgy) To treat the surface of steel so that it is passivated chemically and becomes more resistant to rust.
  3. (transitive, laundry) To brighten by treating with blue (laundry aid)
  4. (transitive, slang) To spend (money) extravagantly; to blow.
    • 1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York 2007, page 311:
      They was willing to blue the lot and have nothing left when they got home except debts on the never-never.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Adjective

blue

  1. (entertainment, informal) Pornographic or profane.
    The air was blue with oaths.
    a blue movie
Synonyms Translations
Blue
Proper noun
  1. Surname An anglicization of German Blau.
  2. (rare) A female given name, typically used in conjoined names like Bonnie Blue or Blue Bell.
  3. A male nickname, occasionally used as a formal given name.
Noun

blue (plural blues)

  1. A letterman at Oxford or Cambridge.
  2. (historical) A member of the Royal Horse Guards (which merged with the 1st Dragoons in 1969)
    • 1944 Noël Coward, I Wonder What Happened to Him?, first verse:
      Have you heard any news / Of that chap in the Blues / Was it Prosser, or Pyecroft, or Pimm?
  3. Synonym of British Blue#English|British Blue (“a breed of cat”)
    • 2001, Alan Edwards, The New Guide to Cat Breeds (page 89)
      This Blue shows the remarkable, sleek bodyline of the breed.


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