blue1

 
Pronunciation: /bluː/

adjective (bluer, bluest)

  • 1of a colour intermediate between green and violet, as of the sky or sea on a sunny day: the clear blue sky blue jeans deep blue eyes
  • (of a person’s skin) having turned blue as a result of cold or breathing difficulties: Ashley went blue and I panicked
  • (of a bird or other animal) having blue markings: a blue jay
  • (of a cat, fox, or rabbit) having fur of a smoky grey colour: the blue fox
  • (of a ski run) of the second-lowest level of difficulty, as indicated by coloured markers positioned along it.
  • Physics denoting one of three colours of quark.
  • 2 informal (of a person or mood) melancholy, sad, or depressed: he’s feeling blue
  • 3 informal (of a film, joke, or story) having sexual or pornographic content: a blue movie
  • 4British informal politically conservative: the successful blue candidate

noun

  • 1 [mass noun] blue colour or pigment: she was dressed in blue the dark blue of his eyes [count noun]: armchairs in pastel blues and greens
  • blue clothes or material: Susan wore blue
  • 2a blue thing, in particular:
  • the blue ball in snooker.
  • (the blue) literary the sky or sea, or the unknown: far out upon the blue were many sails
  • another term for bluing.
  • 3 [usually with modifier] a small butterfly, the male of which is predominantly blue while the female is typically brown.
    • Numerous genera in the family Lycaenidae
  • 4British a person who has represented Cambridge University (a Cambridge blue) or Oxford University (an Oxford blue) at a particular sport in a match between the two universities: a flyweight boxing blue
  • a distinction awarded to a Cambridge blue or an Oxford blue: Adrian’s brother won a rugby blue in December
  • 5Australian/NZ informal an argument or fight: did you have a blue or what?
    [ 1940s: perhaps by association with phrases such as make the air blue, alluding to swearing]
  • 6Australian/NZ informal a mistake: his tactical blue in saying the opposition wasn’t ready to govern
  • 7Australian/NZ informal a nickname for a red-headed person: only an Aussie could make a red-headed man ‘Blue.’
    [ 1930s: of unknown origin]
  • 8British informal a supporter of the Conservative Party.

verb (blues, bluing or blueing, blued)

  • 1make or become blue: [with object]: the light dims, bluing the retina (as adjective blued) blued paper [no object]: the day would haze, the air bluing with afternoon
  • [with object] heat (metal) so as to give it a greyish-blue finish: (as adjective blued) nickel-plated or blued hooks
  • 2 [with object] chiefly historical wash (white clothes) with bluing: they blued the shirts and starched the uniforms

Phrases

blue on blue

Military denoting or relating to an attack made by one’s own side that accidentally harms one’s own forces: blue-on-blue incidents
[from the use of blue to indicate friendly forces in military exercises]

do something until (or till) one is blue in the face

informal put all one’s efforts into doing something to no avail: she could talk to him until she was blue in the face, but he was just not hearing

once in a blue moon

informal very rarely: he comes round once in a blue moon
[because a ‘blue moon’ is a phenomenon that occurs only very rarely]

out of the blue

(or out of a clear blue sky) informal
without warning; unexpectedly: she phoned me out of the blue
[with reference to a ‘blue’ (i.e. clear) sky, from which nothing unusual is expected]

talk a blue streak

North American informal speak continuously and at great length.

Derivatives

blueness

noun

Origin:

Middle English: from Old French bleu, ultimately of Germanic origin and related to Old English blǣwen 'blue' and Old Norse blár 'dark blue' (see also blaeberry)