blue Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun blue color or pigment; resembling the color of the clear sky in the daytime
    blueness.
    • he had eyes of bright blue
  2. noun blue clothing
    • she was wearing blue
  3. noun any organization or party whose uniforms or badges are blue
    • the Union army was a vast blue
  4. noun the sky as viewed during daylight
    blue air; wild blue yonder; blue sky.
    • he shot an arrow into the blue
  5. noun used to whiten laundry or hair or give it a bluish tinge
    blueing; bluing.
  6. noun the sodium salt of amobarbital that is used as a barbiturate; used as a sedative and a hypnotic
    blue angel; Amytal; blue devil; amobarbital sodium.
  7. noun any of numerous small butterflies of the family Lycaenidae
  8. verb turn blue
  9. adjective satellite of the color intermediate between green and violet; having a color similar to that of a clear unclouded sky
    blueish; bluish.
    • October's bright blue weather"- Helen Hunt Jackson
    • a blue flame
    • blue haze of tobacco smoke
  10. adjective satellite used to signify the Union forces in the American Civil War (who wore blue uniforms)
    • a ragged blue line
  11. adjective satellite filled with melancholy and despondency
    downhearted; dispirited; down in the mouth; depressed; downcast; down; gloomy; low; low-spirited; grim.
    • gloomy at the thought of what he had to face
    • gloomy predictions
    • a gloomy silence
    • took a grim view of the economy
    • the darkening mood
    • lonely and blue in a strange city
    • depressed by the loss of his job
    • a dispirited and resigned expression on her face
    • downcast after his defeat
    • feeling discouraged and downhearted
  12. adjective satellite characterized by profanity or cursing
    blasphemous; profane.
    • foul-mouthed and blasphemous
    • blue language
    • profane words
  13. adjective satellite suggestive of sexual impropriety
    naughty; juicy; gamy; racy; spicy; risque; gamey.
    • a blue movie
    • blue jokes
    • he skips asterisks and gives you the gamy details
    • a juicy scandal
    • a naughty wink
    • naughty words
    • racy anecdotes
    • a risque story
    • spicy gossip
  14. adjective satellite belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or aristocracy
    blue-blooded; patrician; gentle; aristocratic; aristocratical.
    • an aristocratic family
    • aristocratic Bostonians
    • aristocratic government
    • a blue family
    • blue blood
    • the blue-blooded aristocracy
    • of gentle blood
    • patrician landholders of the American South
    • aristocratic bearing
    • aristocratic features
    • patrician tastes
  15. adjective satellite morally rigorous and strict
    puritanical; puritanic.
    • the puritan work ethic
    • puritanic distaste for alcohol
    • she was anything but puritanical in her behavior
  16. adjective satellite causing dejection
    dingy; drear; disconsolate; dreary; dark; gloomy; dismal; drab; sorry; grim.
    • a blue day
    • the dark days of the war
    • a week of rainy depressing weather
    • a disconsolate winter landscape
    • the first dismal dispiriting days of November
    • a dark gloomy day
    • grim rainy weather

WordNet

Blue adjective
Etymology
OE. bla, blo, blew, blue, Sw. bl, D. blauw, OHG. blo, G. blau; but influenced in form by F. bleu, from OHG. blao.
Wordforms
comparative Bluer ; superlative Bluest
Definitions
  1. Having the color of the clear sky, or a hue resembling it, whether lighter or darker; as, the deep, blue sea; as blue as a sapphire; blue violets. "The blue firmament." Milton.
  2. Pale, without redness or glare, -- said of a flame; hence, of the color of burning brimstone, betokening the presence of ghosts or devils; as, the candle burns blue; the air was blue with oaths.
  3. Low in spirits; melancholy; as, to feel blue.
  4. Suited to produce low spirits; gloomy in prospect; as, thongs looked blue. Colloq.
  5. Severe or over strict in morals; gloom; as, blue and sour religionists; suiting one who is over strict in morals; inculcating an impracticable, severe, or gloomy mortality; as, blue laws.
  6. Literary; -- applied to women; -- an abbreviation of bluestocking. Colloq.
    The ladies were very blue and well informed. Thackeray.
    For his religion . . . 'T was Presbyterian, true blue. Hudibras.
Blue noun
Definitions
  1. One of the seven colors into which the rays of light divide themselves, when refracted through a glass prism; the color of the clear sky, or a color resembling that, whether lighter or darker; a pigment having such color. Sometimes, poetically, the sky.
  2. A pedantic woman; a bluestocking. Colloq.
  3. pl. Short for blue devils. Low spirits; a fit of despondency; melancholy. Colloq.
Blue transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Blued present participle & verbal noun Bluing
Definitions
  1. To make blue; to dye of a blue color; to make blue by heating, as metals, etc.

Webster 1913