Definitions For The Word "Blue"

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13 entries found for blue.

blue   Pronunciation Key  (bl) n. The hue of that portion of the visible spectrum lying between green and indigo, evoked in the human observer by radiant energy with wavelengths of approximately 420 to 490 nanometers; any of a group of colors that may vary in lightness and saturation, whose hue is that of a clear daytime sky; one of the additive or light primaries; one of the psychological primary hues.   A pigment or dye imparting this hue. Bluing.   An object having this hue. Dress or clothing of this hue: The ushers wore blue.   A person who wears a blue uniform. blues A dress blue uniform, especially that of the U.S. Army. often Blue A member of the Union Army in the Civil War. The Union Army. A bluefish. A small blue butterfly of the family Lycaenidae.   The sky. The sea. adj. blu·er, blu·est Of the color blue. Bluish or having parts that are blue or bluish, as the blue spruce and the blue whale. Having a gray or purplish color, as from cold or contusion. Wearing blue.   Gloomy; depressed. See Synonyms at depressed. Dismal; dreary: a blue day. Puritanical; strict. Aristocratic; patrician. Indecent; risqué: a blue joke; a blue movie. tr. & intr.v. blued, blu·ing, blues To make or become blue. Idioms: blue in the face At the point of extreme exasperation: I argued with them until I was blue in the face. into the blue At a far distance; into the unknown: spontaneously take a trip into the blue. out of the blue From an unexpected or unforeseen source: criticism that came out of the blue. At a completely unexpected time: a long-unseen friend who appeared out of the blue.   [Middle English blue, bleu, from Old French bleu, of Germanic origin. See bhel-1 in Indo-European Roots.] bluely adv. blueness n.

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Main Entry: ¹blue
Pronunciation: 'blü
Function: adjective
Inflected Forms: blu·er;blu·est
: of the color blue

Main Entry: ²blue
Function: noun
1 : a color whose hue is that of the clear sky or that of the portion of the color spectrum lying between green and violet
2 : a pigment or dye that colors blue —see PRUSSIAN BLUE

blue

\Blue\, a. [Compar. Bluer; superl. Bluest.] [OE. bla, blo, blew, blue, Sw. bl?, D. blauw, OHG. bl?o, G. blau; but influenced in form by F. bleu, from OHG. bl[=a]o.] 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.

Blue asbestus. See Crocidolite.

Blue black, of, or having, a very dark blue color, almost black.

Blue blood. See under Blood.

Blue buck (Zo["o]l.), a small South African antelope (Cephalophus pygm[ae]us); also applied to a larger species ([AE]goceras leucoph[ae]us); the blaubok.

Blue cod (Zo["o]l.), the buffalo cod.

Blue crab (Zo["o]l.), the common edible crab of the Atlantic coast of the United States (Callinectes hastatus).

Blue curls (Bot.), a common plant (Trichostema dichotomum), resembling pennyroyal, and hence called also bastard pennyroyal.

Blue devils, apparitions supposed to be seen by persons suffering with delirium tremens; hence, very low spirits. ``Can Gumbo shut the hall door upon blue devils, or lay them all in a red sea of claret?'' --Thackeray.

Blue gage. See under Gage, a plum.

Blue gum, an Australian myrtaceous tree (Eucalyptus globulus), of the loftiest proportions, now cultivated in tropical and warm temperate regions for its timber, and as a protection against malaria. The essential oil is beginning to be used in medicine. The timber is very useful. See Eucalyptus.

Blue jack, Blue stone, blue vitriol; sulphate of copper.

Blue jacket, a man-of war's man; a sailor wearing a naval uniform.

Blue jaundice. See under Jaundice.

Blue laws, a name first used in the eighteenth century to describe certain supposititious laws of extreme rigor reported to have been enacted in New Haven; hence, any puritanical laws. [U. S.]

Blue light, a composition which burns with a brilliant blue flame; -- used in pyrotechnics and as a night signal at sea, and in military operations.

Blue mantle (Her.), one of the four pursuivants of the English college of arms; -- so called from the color of his official robes.

Blue mass, a preparation of mercury from which is formed the blue pill. --McElrath.

Blue mold, or mould, the blue fungus (Aspergillus glaucus) which grows on cheese. --Brande & C.

Blue Monday, a Monday following a Sunday of dissipation, or itself given to dissipation (as the Monday before Lent).

Blue ointment (Med.), mercurial ointment.

Blue Peter (British Marine), a blue flag with a white square in the center, used as a signal for sailing, to recall boats, etc. It is a corruption of blue repeater, one of the British signal flags.

Blue pill. (Med.) (a) A pill of prepared mercury, used as an aperient, etc. (b) Blue mass.

Blue ribbon. (a) The ribbon worn by members of the order of the Garter; -- hence, a member of that order. (b) Anything the attainment of which is an object of great ambition; a distinction; a prize. ``These [scholarships] were the --blue ribbon of the college.'' --Farrar. (c) The distinctive badge of certain temperance or total abstinence organizations, as of the --Blue ribbon Army.

Blue ruin, utter ruin; also, gin. [Eng. Slang] --Carlyle.

Blue spar (Min.), azure spar; lazulite. See Lazulite.

Blue thrush (Zo["o]l.), a European and Asiatic thrush (Petrocossyphus cyaneas).

Blue verditer. See Verditer.

Blue vitriol (Chem.), sulphate of copper, a violet blue crystallized salt, used in electric batteries, calico printing, etc.

Blue water, the open ocean.

To look blue, to look disheartened or dejected.

True blue, genuine and thorough; not modified, nor mixed; not spurious; specifically, of uncompromising Presbyterianism, blue being the color adopted by the Covenanters.

blue

\Blue\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Blued; p. pr. & vb. n. Bluing.] To make blue; to dye of a blue color; to make blue by heating, as metals, etc.

blue

\Blue\ (bl[=u]), n. 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.]

Berlin blue, Prussian blue.

Mineral blue. See under Mineral.

Prussian blue. See under Prussian.

blue

Cod \Cod\, n. [Cf. G. gadde, and (in Heligoland) gadden, L. gadus merlangus.] (Zo["o]l.) An important edible fish (Gadus morrhua), taken in immense numbers on the northern coasts of Europe and America. It is especially abundant and large on the Grand Bank of Newfoundland. It is salted and dried in large quantities.

Note: There are several varieties; as shore cod, from shallow water; bank cod, from the distant banks; and rock cod, which is found among ledges, and is often dark brown or mottled with red. The tomcod is a distinct species of small size. The bastard, blue, buffalo, or cultus cod of the Pacific coast belongs to a distinct family. See Buffalo cod, under Buffalo.

Cod fishery, the business of fishing for cod.

Cod line, an eighteen-thread line used in catching codfish. --McElrath.

blue

adj 1: having a color similar to that of a clear unclouded sky; "October's bright blue weather"- Helen Hunt Jackson; "a blue flame"; "blue haze of tobacco smoke" [syn: bluish, blueish, light-blue, dark-blue] 2: used to signify the Union forces in the Civil War (who wore blue uniforms); "a ragged blue line" 3: wearing blue; "the painting is called `the blue boy'"; "the blue team" 4: low in spirits; "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" [syn: depressed, dispirited, down(p), downcast, downhearted, low, low-spirited] 5: characterized by profanity or cursing; "foul-mouthed and blasphemous"; "blue language"; "profane words" [syn: blasphemous, profane] 6: suggestive of sexual impropriety; "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" [syn: gamy, gamey, juicy, naughty, racy, risque, spicy] 7: belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or aristocracy; "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" [syn: aristocratic, aristocratical, blue-blooded, gentle, patrician] 8: morally rigorous and strict; "blue laws"; "the puritan work ethic"; "puritanic distaste for alcohol"; "she was anything but puritanical in her behavior" [syn: blue(a), puritan, puritanic, puritanical] 9: tinged with blue or purple from cold or contusion; "the children's lips are blue from cold"; "a blue bruise" [syn: bluish, blueish] 10: characterized by or marked with a bluish color; "a blue fox"; "the great blue whale"; "a blue spruce" 11: causing dejection; "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" [syn: dark, depressing, disconsolate, dismal, dispiriting, gloomy, grim] n 1: the color of the clear sky in the daytime; "he had eyes of bright blue" [syn: blueness] 2: blue clothing; "she was wearing blue" 3: any organization or party whose uniforms or badges are blue; "the Union army was a vast blue" 4: the sky as viewed during daylight; "he shot an arrow into the blue" [syn: blue sky, blue air, wild blue yonder] 5: used to whiten laundry or hair or give it a bluish tinge [syn: bluing, blueing] 6: the sodium salt of amobarbital that is used as a barbiturate used as a sedative and a hypnotic [syn: amobarbital sodium, blue angel, Amytal] 7: any of numerous small chiefly blue butterflies of the family Lycaenidae v : turn blue

blue

A language proposed by Softech to meet the DoD Ironman
requirements which led to Ada. ["On the BLUE Language
Submitted to the DoD", E.W. Dijkstra, SIGPLAN Notices
13(10):10-15 (Oct 1978)].
 

blue, AZ
  Zip code(s): 85922
 

blue

generally associated with purple (Ex. 25:4; 26:1, 31, 36, etc.). It is supposed
to have been obtained from a shellfish of the Mediterranean, the Helix ianthina
of Linnaeus. The robe of the high priest's ephod was to be all of this colour
(Ex. 28:31), also the loops of the curtains (26:4) and the ribbon of the
breastplate (28:28). Blue cloths were also made for various sacred purposes
(Num. 4:6, 7, 9, 11, 12). (See COLOUR.)

blue

BLUE: in Acronym Finder

blue

blue: in CancerWEB's On-line Medical Dictionary