blue blood
[bloo bluhd for 1; bloo bluhd for 2]
- 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.
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Origin of blue blood
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for blue blood
Contemporary Examples
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.
In Cold Mountain I did the blue-blood accent, and this one is totally different.
Historical Examples
Not a blue-blood, for that has to do with decadence, but a woman of the people.
Red FleeceWill 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 JapanInazo Nitob
blue blood
- royal or aristocratic descent
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Word Origin
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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper