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.
blue
American
[bloo]
/ blu /
noun
-
blues
plural
-
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.
-
something having a blue color.
Place the blue next to the red.
-
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,
-
the sky.
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the sea.
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the remote distance.
They've vanished into the blue somewhere.
-
adjective
bluer,
bluest
-
of the color of blue.
a blue tie.
-
(initial capital letter) of or relating to the Union army in the American Civil War.
-
(of the skin) discolored by cold, contusion, fear, or vascular collapse.
-
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
-
holding or offering little hope; dismal; bleak.
a blue outlook.
- Synonyms:
- gloomy
-
characterized by or stemming from rigid morals or religion.
statutes that were blue and unrealistic.
- Synonyms:
- strait-laced, puritanical, righteous
-
marked by blasphemy.
The air was blue with oaths.
-
(of an animal's pelage) grayish-blue.
-
indecent; somewhat obscene; risqué.
a blue joke or film.
-
Politics.
-
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.
-
verb (used with object)
-
blues,
present (3rd person singular)
-
blued,
past participle, past
-
bluing,
present participle
-
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
-
out of the blue, suddenly and unexpectedly.
The inheritance came out of the blue as a stroke of good fortune.
-
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
-
blue cloth or clothing
dressed in blue
-
-
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
-
the honour of so representing one's university
-
-
an informal name for Tory
-
any of numerous small blue-winged butterflies of the genera Lampides, Polyommatus , etc: family Lycaenidae
-
archaic short for bluestocking
-
slang a policeman
-
archery a blue ring on a target, between the red and the black, scoring five points
-
a blue ball in snooker, etc
-
another name for blueing
-
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
-
informal a mistake; error
-
apparently from nowhere; unexpectedly
the opportunity came out of the blue
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into the unknown or the far distance
adjective
-
of the colour blue
-
(of the flesh) having a purple tinge, as from cold or contusion
-
depressed, moody, or unhappy
-
dismal or depressing
a blue day
-
indecent, titillating, or pornographic
blue films
-
bluish in colour or having parts or marks that are bluish
a blue fox
a blue whale
-
rare aristocratic; noble; patrician See blue blood
a blue family
-
relating to, supporting, or representing the Democratic Party Compare red 1
verb
-
to make, dye, or become blue
-
(tr) to treat (laundry) with blueing
-
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
-
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:
Hilton arrived like he was ready to party in Hermosa Beach, in a black open-collar shirt that was either seersucker or unironed, dark blue slacks and white Adidas with orange ombre stripes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
Notice what this means for our hypothetical investor with a stock portfolio holding the DJIA’s blue chip stocks.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026
Architect Peter Morris spent about a decade developing the homes, which feature sweeping arches and duck-egg blue metalwork.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
The scene resembles the Ukrainian flag: yellow fields of corn, sunflowers and wheat, a crisp blue September sky.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
“It was the strangest thing…,” he said, lying in the mossy garden, watching the leaves tickle the bitter blue sky.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
Private-credit funds like Blue Owl’s have seen a rise in redemption requests over the past year, as investors grew concerned about credit health and the funds’ exposure to software.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
The tech-focused fund, Blue Owl Technology Income Corp., saw estimated redemption requests represent 39% of shares, or $1.1 billion, up from 38.1% in the second quarter but down from 40.4% in the first quarter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
And while Braniff says Blue Lights often deals with heavy themes, he believes it does a good job at showing what Northern Ireland is really like.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
She’ll follow that later in October with the same at Blue Note New York.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026
Blue thread, in curling waves, marching across the top of the apron.
From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack
Along Fostoria’s Drummond Street, these homes’ front porches become stages for local and regional musicians playing folk, blues, country, Americana, rock and acoustic music.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
The right map above illustrates that shift, with lighter reds and blues showing much smaller rates of change during that decade.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026
"I was put me in the back of an ambulance and I remember hearing the blues and twos," he recalls.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
Some are born to sing the blues, as Perry once observed — just not Perry himself, who chews his way through this corny come-on like an overserved uncle at the Hard Rock Cafe.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
She sounded disaffected, cool, all blues and violets, the opposite of the hot ember glow that burned inside Maya.
From "Far from the Tree" by Robin Benway
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
Will more of them leave for bluer pastures now that the man in charge has made explicit that he crushes the reach of links?
From Slate ● Nov. 26, 2024
Not everyone supports the flight to bluer skies.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 19, 2024
At dawn, the light changes colour rapidly from a dark blue to a brighter yellow or neutral hue; at dusk, it changes in the opposite direction, becoming bluer as it darkens.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 17, 2024
If there is somebody with bluer eyes than mine, then maybe there is somebody with the bluest eyes.
From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
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
The Fontainebleau is the tallest, newest and bluest hotel in southern Nevada’s glittery resort corridor.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 12, 2023
And he had the bluest eyes she’d ever seen, bluer even than Aaron’s.
From "The Devil's Arithmetic" by Jane Yolen
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
Solid Design: Remington plans to offer the Genesis in the entire gamut of stainless and blued, plain and fluted versions, with numerous stock choices.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
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
Strain it, and put in a very little blueing.
From A Treatise on Domestic Economy For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School by Catharine Esther Beecher
Her arm brushed against a bottle of blueing left uncorked by Mrs. Comstock.
From The Vanishing Houseboat by Mildred A. (Mildred Augustine) Wirt
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
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.
