blue

adj

1. Of a blue hue.

   “the deep blue sea”

   “Why is the sky blue?”

   “He was wearing a blue t-shirt.”

   “Gerty's were of the bluest Irish blue, set off by lustrous lashes and dark expressive brows. Time was when those brows were not so silkily seductive”

2. (informal)Depressed, melancholic, sad.

   ““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.[…]””

   “"Will you play some of the 'Garden' now?" she asked. "I think I should like it. I'm just the least bit blue."”

   “But I'm bluer than blue / Sadder than sad.”

3. Having a bluish or purplish shade to the skin due to a lack of oxygen to the normally deep-red red blood cells; cyanotic.

   “My hands were blue with cold.”

   “The divers got them out of the car just in time – they were starting to turn blue.”

4. Pale, without redness or glare.

   “The candle burns blue.”

5. (US)Supportive of, run by (a member of), pertaining to, or dominated by a political party represented by the colour blue.

   “I live in a blue constituency.  Congress turned blue in the mid-term elections.”

6. (Australian)Supportive of, run by (a member of), pertaining to, or dominated by a political party represented by the colour blue.

   “Illawarra turns blue in Liberal washout”

7. (UK)Supportive of, run by (a member of), pertaining to, or dominated by a political party represented by the colour blue.
8. Of, dominated by, or shifted toward the higher-frequency, or "bluer", end of the electromagnetic spectrum.
9. (particle)Having a colour charge of blue.
10. Extra rare; left very raw and cold.
11. Having a coat of fur of a slaty gray shade.
12. (archaic)Severe or overly strict in morals; gloomy.

    “blue and sour religionists;  blue laws”

13. (archaic)Literary; scholarly; bluestockinged.

    “Some of the ladies were very blue and well informed, reading Mrs. Somerville and frequenting the Royal Institution; others were severe and Evangelical, and held by Exeter Hall.”

14. (informal)Risqué; obscene; profane; pornographic.

    “His material is too blue for prime time.”

    “The air was blue with oaths.”

    “a blue movie”

15. (dated, slang)Drunk.

    “My wine I drank and oft got blue / On brandy, gin and whisky too— / Until my reputation gay, / Along with care, was cast away —”

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The colour of the clear sky or the deep sea; the colour midway between green and violet in the visible spectrum and one of the primary additive colours.

   “Lady Penrhyn was quite handsome enough to have spared one ingredient in her cup of fascination, but, unfortunately, having been married in her teens, she expected to live in them, and, never being reminded by the trials to which her sex is subject, of the flight of years, and the inroads of suffering, expected time to stand still, and the first bloom of existence (the blue on the plum) to remain as stationary as her own taste, for the pleasures of flirtation.”

   “She watches the yachts in the creamy evening blues.”

   “Red No. 3, red No. 40, blue No. 2 and green No. 3 all have been linked with cancer or tumors in animals. Other sources say red No. 40 and yellow No. 5 and No. 6 contain or may be contaminated with known carcinogens.”

2. (countable, uncountable)Anything coloured blue, especially to distinguish it from similar objects differing only in colour.

   “I don't like red Smarties. Have you got a blue?”

3. (countable, uncountable)A blue dye or pigment.
4. (uncountable)Blue clothing.

   “The boys in blue marched to the pipers.”

5. (countable, in-plural, uncountable)Blue clothing.
6. (countable, uncountable)Blue clothing.

   “Come on, you blues!”

7. (countable, slang, uncountable)Blue clothing.

   “He was safe! Terrible call, blue!”

8. (countable, uncountable)Blue clothing.

   “He excelled at rowing and received a blue in the sport at Oxford.”

9. (countable, uncountable)Blue clothing.

   “He was a rugby blue at Cambridge.”

10. (countable, slang, uncountable)Blue clothing.

    “He dialed Kathy to be sure she was okay and see if the blues arrived. She was crying when she picked up the phone. “Kathy, honey, I'm here. It'll be okay. Are the police there?””

11. (countable, historical, uncountable)Blue clothing.
12. (countable, uncountable)The sky, literally or figuratively.

    “The balloon floated up into the blue.”

    “His request for leave came out of the blue.”

13. (countable, uncountable)The ocean; deep waters.
14. (countable, uncountable)The far distance; a remote or distant place.

    “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.”

15. (countable, uncountable)A dog or cat with a slaty gray coat.

    “On average, blues and other dilutes have weaker coats and skin problems seem more prevalent in the dilutes.”

16. (countable, uncountable)One of the colour balls used in snooker, with a value of five points.
17. (countable, uncountable)Any of the butterflies of the subfamily Polyommatinae in the family Lycaenidae, most of which have blue on their wings.
18. (countable, uncountable)A bluefish.

    “When snow falls on the roses, when a mako is beheaded, when the weaks and blues swim south”

    “Blues are about as vicious a fish as you'll find on the Atlantic seaboard — they will continue to slash through schools of bait even after they have eaten so much that they're constantly regurgitating shredded baitfish.”

19. (Australia, colloquial, countable, uncountable)An argument or brawl.

    “"I had a blue with Dad," said Fay. "He wanted to drive us, I wanted to walk."”

    “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.”

    “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.”

    “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.”

20. (countable, uncountable)A liquid with an intense blue colour, added to a laundry wash to prevent yellowing of white clothes.

    “It was applied methodically, carefully, resolutely, as in the fashion of a Satin-bird with charcoal, desiccated wood or blue from laundry-bags.”

21. (countable, uncountable)Any of several processes to protect metal against rust.
22. (British, countable, uncountable)A type of firecracker.

    “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 […]”

23. (countable, particle, uncountable)One of the three colour charges for quarks.
24. (UK, countable, uncountable)A member or supporter of the Conservative Party.

    “He is a true blue.”

25. (countable, uncountable)A blue cheese.

    “"No, just get over here. You need to try this one!" she exclaimed as she cheesed up a chunk of bread with one of our blues.”

    “Blues are made via the introduction of molds from the genus Penicillum roqueforti, which are normally added to the milk toward the beginning of the cheesemaking process.”

26. (slang, uncountable)Risqué or pornographic material.

    “Improvising freely, he entered the stage with a karaoke set and introduced himself as a 'Bohemian street performer', before launching into a series of clubstyle gags and one-liners, promising 'a bit of blue for the Dads'[…]”

    “Fuzz grinned and nodded at the stage. 'Bit of blue for the lads.' […] The stage was dimly lit, and populated by Nubian slaves and harem girls in artfully draped deshabille.”

27. A letterman at Oxford or Cambridge.
28. (historical)A member of the Royal Horse Guards (which merged with the 1st Dragoons in 1969)

    “Have you heard any news / Of that chap in the Blues / Was it Prosser, or Pyecroft, or Pimm?”

29. Synonym of British Blue (“a breed of cat”).

    “This Blue shows the remarkable, sleek bodyline of the breed.”

verb

1. (ergative)To make or become blue; to turn blue.

   “It blows, it snows, And blues your nose, My toes are all frost bitten The weather would Quite starve the crows, Or freeze the part you sit on.”

   “The dawn is wanly blueing.”

   “Michael: As a member of the Blue Man Group?[…] Tobias: Oh, no, no, I’m not in the group yet. No, I’m afraid I just blue myself.”

2. (transitive)To treat the surface of steel so that it is passivated chemically and becomes more resistant to rust.
3. (transitive)To brighten by treating with blue (laundry aid).
4. (Australia, intransitive, slang)To fight, brawl, or argue.

   “It was years since Ken had flogged her up, but blueing with him still made her ache.”

5. (dated, slang, transitive)To spend (money) extravagantly; to blow.

   “So far as I can see, there’s nothing to prevent you from drawing a cheque for fifty thousand and blueing the lot.”

   “They was willing to blue the lot and have nothing left when they got home except debts on the never-never.”

name

1. A surname from German. An anglicization of German Blau.
2. (rare)A female given name from English, typically used in conjoined names like Bonnie Blue or Blue Bell.
3. A male nickname, occasionally used as a formal given name. (Australia) Nickname for a person with ginger hair.