blue-pencil

American

[bloo-pen-suhl] / ˈbluˈpɛn səl /

verb (used with object)

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

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

blue pencil British

noun

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

"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

verb

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

"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

Etymology

Origin of blue-pencil

First recorded in 1885–90

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.

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

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

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

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 demanded somebody who would blue-pencil the interesting sentences in the important letters.

From Public Opinion by Lippmann, Walter

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