blue-pencil

[ bloo-pen-suhl ]

/ ˈbluˈpɛn səl /

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verb (used with object), blue-pen·ciled, blue-pen·cil·ing or (especially British) blue-pen·cilled, blue-pen·cil·ling.

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

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Origin of blue-pencil

First recorded in 1885–90

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use blue-pencil in a sentence

Then my secretary types up my material, prints it out, and then I revise using a 0.7 mm blue pencil.
How I Write: Jared Diamond|Noah Charney|November 20, 2013|DAILY BEAST
The prince took up the pamphlet which he had been busy underlining with red and blue pencil.
Black Diamonds|Mr Jkai
Sunday newspaper specials came home with "return" written in blue pencil across the neatly typed page.
The White Shield|Myrtle Reed
He selected the eggs with great care, marking some very choice ones with a blue pencil.
Toots and his Friends|Kate Tannatt Woods

You have not written a single letter since you came here—only a post-card, and that you wrote with a blue pencil.
Creditors; Pariah|August Strindberg
"Dig up some sand, pard, and fling it into the cinder-sifter while I write out the caution in blue pencil," said Stanley.
The Harmsworth Magazine, Vol. 1, 1898-1899, No. 6|Various

British Dictionary definitions for blue-pencil

blue pencil

noun

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

verb blue-pencil -cils, -cilling or -cilled or US -cils, -ciling or -ciled

(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

blue-pencil

Origin of blue-pencil

Words related to blue-pencil

How to use blue-pencil in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for blue-pencil