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blue-collar

American  
[bloo-kol-er] / ˈbluˈkɒl ər /

adjective

  1. of or relating to wage-earning workers who wear work clothes or other specialized clothing on the job, as mechanics, longshoremen, and miners.

noun

  1. a blue-collar worker.

blue-collar British  

adjective

  1. of, relating to, or designating manual industrial workers Compare white-collar pink-collar

    a blue-collar union
"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
blue-collar Cultural  

  1. A descriptive term widely used for manual laborers, as opposed to white-collar for office workers.

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The term is often associated with conservative values.

Etymology

Origin of blue-collar

First recorded in 1945–50

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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.