blue-pencil

[ bloo-pen-suh l ]

/ ˈbluˈpɛn səl /

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

Nearby words

First recorded in 1885–90

When he begins to blue-pencil that pay-roll, some one is going to be hungry.
The Modern Railroad|Edward Hungerford
I never do, and Harmer has to blue-pencil my copy mercilessly.
Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1907 to 1908|Lucy Maud Montgomery
You blue-pencil out of my poor paragraphs everything that's interesting.
The Dop Doctor|Clotilde Inez Mary Graves
He handed a map, with red-pencil and blue-pencil markings, along to von Schlichten.
Uller Uprising|Henry Beam Piper, John D. Clark and John F. Carr

Meantime I'll take your advice about my speech, Mac, and blue-pencil the how-to-be-good stuff.
The Clarion|Samuel Hopkins Adams