blue blood
Americannoun
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an aristocrat, noble, or member of a socially prominent family.
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aristocratic, noble, or socially prominent lineage or relatives.
They boasted a lineage of pure blue blood.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of blue blood
1825–35; translation of Spanish sangre azul. See sanguine, azure
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.
Before his senior year, he could become the centerpiece of a feverish bidding war between blue blood programs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026
It was Brown, a Rhode Island blue blood whose name now adorns an Ivy League university, who in 1790 financed Slater’s stolen ideas for a state-of-the-art cotton mill.
From Barron's ● Jan. 28, 2026
No blue blood wants to fake excitement about schlepping to the Pop-Tart Bowl, no offense to those sentient Pop-Tarts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2025
Part of the fun in discussions of who qualifies as a blue blood is that there’s rarely consensus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 19, 2024
Her hair doesn't comb straight either, but tends to swirls and cowlicks which are proof-positive of her blue blood in the same way that a cold nose is in a woman.
From Seeds of Pine by Canuck, Janey
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.
