blue-pencil

[bloo-pen-suh l]

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.

Origin of blue-pencil

First recorded in 1885–90

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

I never do, and Harmer has to blue-pencil my copy mercilessly.
Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1907 to 1908
Lucy Maud Montgomery
When he begins to blue-pencil that pay-roll, some one is going to be hungry.
The Modern Railroad
Edward Hungerford
Good and true writing no magazine or newspaper editor will blue-pencil.
The Last Harvest
John Burroughs
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
He used the editorial "blue-pencil" for alteration and condensation with the hand of a master.
The Great God Success
John Graham (David Graham Phillips)