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View synonyms for black-and-blue

black-and-blue

[ blak-uhn-bloo ]

adjective

  1. discolored, as by bruising; exhibiting ecchymosis:

    a black-and-blue mark on my knee.



black-and-blue

adjective

  1. (of the skin) discoloured, as from a bruise
  2. feeling pain or soreness, as from a beating
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of black-and-blue1

Middle English word dating back to 1300–50
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Idioms and Phrases

Badly bruised, as in That fall down the stairs left me black and blue all over . Even though multicolored bruises rarely include the color black, this term has been so used since about 1300.
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Example Sentences

The west, half-way to the zenith, was green—the black-and-blue green of bruised flesh.

There was a long scratch on one calf and numerous black-and-blue spots around both knees.

These would explode, and I was twice hit by the bullets, which left a black-and-blue mark.

Always it landed on some tender portion of my anatomy, so that my average, written in black-and-blue spots, remained an even 1000.

Don't know exactly what it was, but I warrant I'll have a nice black-and-blue mark to show for it.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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