blue
noun
the pure color of a clear sky; the primary color between green and violet in the visible spectrum, an effect of light with a wavelength between 450 and 500 nanometers.
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bluer.
blue
American
[bloo]
/ blu /
noun
-
blues
plural
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the pure color of a clear sky; the primary color between green and violet in the visible spectrum, an effect of light with a wavelength between 450 and 500 nanometers.
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something having a blue color.
Place the blue next to the red.
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a person who wears blue or is a member of a group characterized by some blue symbol.
Tomorrow the blues will play the browns.
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(often initial capital letter) a member of the Union army in the American Civil War or the army itself.
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any of several blue-winged butterflies of the family Lycaenidae.
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Printing. blueline.
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the blue,
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the sky.
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the sea.
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the remote distance.
They've vanished into the blue somewhere.
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adjective
bluer,
bluest
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of the color of blue.
a blue tie.
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(initial capital letter) of or relating to the Union army in the American Civil War.
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(of the skin) discolored by cold, contusion, fear, or vascular collapse.
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depressed in spirits; dejected; melancholy.
She felt blue about not being chosen for the team.
- Synonyms:
- downcast, glum, sad, dispirited, doleful, morose, unhappy, despondent
- Antonyms:
- happy
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holding or offering little hope; dismal; bleak.
a blue outlook.
- Synonyms:
- gloomy
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characterized by or stemming from rigid morals or religion.
statutes that were blue and unrealistic.
- Synonyms:
- strait-laced, puritanical, righteous
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marked by blasphemy.
The air was blue with oaths.
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(of an animal's pelage) grayish-blue.
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indecent; somewhat obscene; risqué.
a blue joke or film.
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Politics.
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relating to, supporting, or belonging to the Democratic Party in the United States; Democratic.
The county effectively turned blue, with all 38 district judges elected being Democrats.
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British. politically conservative.
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verb (used with object)
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blues,
present (3rd person singular)
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blued,
past participle, past
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bluing,
present participle
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blueing
present participle
-
to make blue; dye a blue color.
-
to tinge with bluing.
Don't blue your clothes till the second rinse.
verb (used without object)
-
blues,
present (3rd person singular)
-
blued,
past participle, past
-
bluing,
present participle
-
blueing
present participle
idioms
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out of the blue, suddenly and unexpectedly.
The inheritance came out of the blue as a stroke of good fortune.
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blue in the face, exhausted and speechless, as from excessive anger, physical strain, etc..
I reminded him about it till I was blue in the face.
blue
1
British
/ bluː /
noun
-
any of a group of colours, such as that of a clear unclouded sky, that have wavelengths in the range 490–445 nanometres. Blue is the complementary colour of yellow and with red and green forms a set of primary colours
-
a dye or pigment of any of these colours
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blue cloth or clothing
dressed in blue
-
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a sportsperson who represents or has represented Oxford or Cambridge University and has the right to wear the university colour (dark blue for Oxford, light blue for Cambridge)
an Oxford blue
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the honour of so representing one's university
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an informal name for Tory
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any of numerous small blue-winged butterflies of the genera Lampides, Polyommatus , etc: family Lycaenidae
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archaic short for bluestocking
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slang a policeman
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archery a blue ring on a target, between the red and the black, scoring five points
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a blue ball in snooker, etc
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another name for blueing
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slang an argument or fight
he had a blue with a taxi driver
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Also: bluey. slang a court summons, esp for a traffic offence
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informal a mistake; error
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apparently from nowhere; unexpectedly
the opportunity came out of the blue
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into the unknown or the far distance
adjective
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of the colour blue
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(of the flesh) having a purple tinge, as from cold or contusion
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depressed, moody, or unhappy
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dismal or depressing
a blue day
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indecent, titillating, or pornographic
blue films
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bluish in colour or having parts or marks that are bluish
a blue fox
a blue whale
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rare aristocratic; noble; patrician See blue blood
a blue family
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relating to, supporting, or representing the Democratic Party Compare red 1
verb
-
to make, dye, or become blue
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(tr) to treat (laundry) with blueing
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slang (tr) to spend extravagantly or wastefully; squander
Blue
2
British
/ bluː /
noun
blue
More Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
bluesimple
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bluessimple
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have bluedperfect
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has bluedperfect
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am blueingprogressive
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am bluingprogressive
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are blueingprogressive
-
are bluingprogressive
-
is blueingprogressive
-
is bluingprogressive
-
have been blueingperfect progressive
-
have been bluingperfect progressive
-
has been blueingperfect progressive
-
has been bluingperfect progressive
Past
-
bluedsimple
-
had bluedperfect
-
was blueingprogressive
-
was bluingprogressive
-
were blueingprogressive
-
were bluingprogressive
-
had been blueingperfect progressive
-
had been bluingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of blue
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English blewe, from Anglo-French blew, bl(i)u, bl(i)ef “blue, livid, discolored,” Old French blo, blau ( French bleu ), from unattested Germanic blǣwaz; compare Old English blǣwen, contraction of blǣhǣwen “deep blue, perse,” Old Frisian blāw, Middle Dutch blā(u), Old High German blāo ( German blau ), Old Norse blār
Explanation
Among other things, blue is a color and a dreary mood. If the blue sky and ocean have turned gray and stormy, you might be blue because your day at the beach is ruined. Whether it's a primary color or a saddened mood, blue is used often as an adjective for people and things. Blue is a mix of green and purple shades, and it's the favorite color of many. The color blue might bring thoughts of first-place blue ribbons or police officers in blue uniforms, and it colors many flags of the world. Blue is everywhere, but there isn't a lot of blue food unless it's colored with dye. Even blueberries are mostly purple.
Vocabulary lists containing blue
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The charity is built around what is known as "green and blue health", which encourages people to use natural environments such as forests, beaches and the sea to improve their health.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
Rather than simply relocating, at least some blue cones may undergo a change in identity, becoming red or green cones as the eye develops.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 31, 2026
TV news versions of the electoral map have become a living tool for on-air analysts since debuting in 1976, when red represented Democrat and blue meant Republican.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2026
That ceasefire has been a "breath of fresh air", said the 38-year-old father with piercing blue eyes.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026
The fungi were a stunning blue, the color of a bitter-cold sky, but that lovely exterior hid a deadly poison.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
Ms. Machado is particularly opposed to the arrangement between the U.S. and the Barbados company North American Blue Energy Partners, which has been granted rights to 17 oil fields.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026
Long Beach Utilities rerouted the sewage flow with a bypass line and called in emergency contractor Ocean Blue to assist with spill cleanup efforts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2026
The county - which includes the Blue Mountains and Owen Sound - is a popular tourist destination, which means someone may have bought the ticket and forgot to check it after coming home.
From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2026
In February, Amazon pulled Blue Jay, a multiarm system it had unveiled four months earlier, from its operations.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 28, 2026
So I told her about the Cobalt Blue Orchid, about the science and its magic.
From "The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller
The prehistory of rock ‘n’ roll is full of names who might have become stars if they were gifted with his baby blues or discovered by a relentless schemer on the level Col.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2026
Side 2 launches with “Sunspot Baby,” a honky-tonk blues centered on a duplicitous girlfriend who bails on the protagonist, leaving him with a maxed-out credit card.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
Instead of singing the blues, Clarkson shopped around for another Nashville-area residence.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 19, 2026
Alongside her husband, she went to try to find her son and was passed by two police cars "with blues and twos on".
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
The sun sank into the horizon and exploded in hot oranges and blues.
From "The Night Diary" by Veera Hiranandani
One entry describes begonia as “a deep pink that is bluer, lighter, and stronger than average coral . . . and bluer and stronger than sweet william—called also gaiety.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
Firstly, they are two to three times as bright as traditional halogens, and their "colour temperature" is bluer and whiter, which mimics natural daylight.
From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2026
Because the dust blocked shorter, bluer wavelengths, the star’s appearance shifted dramatically toward red.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 9, 2025
Not everyone supports the flight to bluer skies.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 19, 2024
It’s bluer, bigger, more turbulent than I’d imagined.
From "Everything, Everything" by Nicola Yoon
Once the bluest of blue-chip stocks, IBM’s biggest-ever decline on Tuesday following a profit warning did little to rattle investors focused on a dip in inflation and on AI winners.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
His research is the bluest of blue-sky: he uses quantum computers to predict how sub-atomic particles behave.
From BBC ● Mar. 17, 2026
GameStop is the bluest of blue-chip meme stocks, the Apple or Nvidia of its little world.
From Slate ● May 13, 2024
She cries, "You swore that you loved me, but where were the clues? I died on the altar waiting for the proof. You sacrificed us to the gods of your bluest day."
From Salon ● Apr. 19, 2024
It was the bluest, clearest day of the summer.
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
As we talked, the greens blued into ultramarine or yellowed into chartreuse.
From New York Times ● Feb. 24, 2022
Facebook is the classic example of how the individual investor can get screwed, blued and tattooed.
From Forbes ● Sep. 1, 2012
The Tikka T3 Deluxe features a blued T3-barreled action in a high-grade walnut stock with classic three-point checkering, a rosewood forend tip and a grip cap with an antique silver-colored T3 medallion.
From Time Magazine Archive
The afternoon air thickened and blued with gasoline fumes.
From Time Magazine Archive
From the standpoint of a stationary observer, light reflected off you is reddened as you depart and blued as you return.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Wash blue, or blueing, is a laundry product with iron powder and just a hint of blue dye.
From Salon ● Mar. 17, 2021
This circumstance has led Sociologists Peter and Brigitte Berger to suggest that if what Charles Reich calls "the greening of America" goes on apace, it may shade into a "blueing of America."
From Time Magazine Archive
The Glen Alden Coal Co. of Buffalo and Rochester, N. Y., has made the last wash a blueing process.
From Time Magazine Archive
Why do we run clothes through blueing water?
From Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts by Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon
Blueing: Open out each piece and place one or two at a time in a tub of blueing water for just a moment; wring tightly, and shake out each piece.
From Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Household Management by Ontario. Ministry of Education
The colour actually comes from a process that starts with boiling water and grinding laundry bluing cubes, which are usually used to wash white clothes.
From BBC ● Feb. 11, 2024
Although Castle made works with color, utilizing a variety of materials that include laundry bluing, watercolor, crayon and even colored ink leached from magazine pages, these are black soot-and-spit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2023
Some on Reddit fixed this by sanding theirs down to take the shine off of the finish, and another recommended using an acrylic topcoat and another chemical bluing.
From The Verge ● Mar. 9, 2022
When a congressional seat opened up in a bluing stretch of Phoenix’s eastern suburbs, Sinema ran and won.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 6, 2021
High above the library’s stained-glass windows and soaring neo-Gothic spires, screeching seagulls whirled in white loops against the slowly bluing sky.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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