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• blue-pencil
  blue-pencil

  verb (used with object)

  to alter, abridge, or cancel with or as with a pencil that has blue lead, as in editing a manuscript.
• blue pencil
  blue pencil

  noun

  deletion, alteration, or censorship of the contents of a book or other work

blue-pencil

American  

[bloo-pen-suhl] / ˈbluˈpɛn səl /

verb (used with object)

blue-penciled, blue-penciling, blue-pencilled, blue-pencilling

1. to alter, abridge, or cancel with or as with a pencil that has blue lead, as in editing a manuscript.

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blue pencil British  

noun

1. deletion, alteration, or censorship of the contents of a book or other work

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verb

1. (tr) to alter or delete parts of (a book, film, etc), esp to censor

Etymology

Origin of blue-pencil

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

The thing I'd like to do if I ran a newspaper would be the telegraph editor and the blue-pencil man.

From Time Magazine Archive

But recently the Army has stretched the pretext of "security" to blue-pencil information critical of the Army.

From Time Magazine Archive

Glavlit, the Soviet censorship agency, combed some of the outgoing cables carefully, eliminating, among other things, mention of its own blue-pencil activity.

From Time Magazine Archive

He would "never go against the Weather Bureau," but once in a long while he does blue-pencil official forecasts that strike him as debatable.

From Time Magazine Archive

In Brussels a German officer tried to blue-pencil a cable Gibson was sending to the State Department.

From With the Allies by Davis, Richard Harding

Related Words

• alter
• amend
• compare
• cut
• develop
• improve
• modify
• overhaul
• reconsider
• reexamine
• reorganize
• revamp
• review
• rework
• rewrite
• scrutinize
• tighten
• update
• upgrade