blue blood

[bloo bluhd for 1; bloo bluhd for 2]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR blue blood ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

an aristocrat, noble, or member of a socially prominent family.

aristocratic, noble, or socially prominent lineage or relatives: They boasted a lineage of pure blue blood.

Origin of blue blood

1825–35; translation of Spanish sangre azul. See sanguine, azure

Related formsblue-blood·ed, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for blue blood

aristocrat, noble, patrician, thoroughbred, Brahman, silk-stocking

Examples from the Web for blue blood

Contemporary Examples of blue blood

From the start, we see him as he is: a despot and a swindler, a Dallas blue-blood with FBI ties, fleeing a violent past.
This Week’s Hot Reads, July 15, 2013
Sarah Stodola, Jen Vafidis, Damaris Colhoun
July 15, 2013
In Cold Mountain I did the blue-blood accent, and this one is totally different.
Nicole Kidman on Her Sexy, Award-Worthy Turn in ‘The Paperboy’
Marlow Stern
December 4, 2012

Historical Examples of blue blood

Not a blue-blood, for that has to do with decadence, but a woman of the people.
Red Fleece
Will Levington Comfort
Without this mother, Veracity was like a blue-blood orphan whom only the most cultivated mind could adopt and nourish.
Bushido, the Soul of Japan
Inazo Nitob

British Dictionary definitions for blue blood

blue blood

noun

royal or aristocratic descent

Derived Formsblue-blooded, adjective

Word Origin for blue blood

C19: translation of Spanish sangre azul

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

Word Origin and History for blue blood

1834, translating Spanish sangre azul, claimed by certain families of Castile as uncontaminated by Moorish or Jewish admixture, probably from the notion of the visible veins of people of fair complexion.