blue-pencil

American

[bloo-pen-suhl] / ˈbluˈpɛn səl /

verb (used with object)

blue-penciled, blue-penciling, blue-pencilled, blue-pencilling

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

blue pencil British

noun

deletion, alteration, or censorship of the contents of a book or other work

"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

verb

(tr) to alter or delete parts of (a book, film, etc), esp to censor

"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

Etymology

Origin of blue-pencil

First recorded in 1885–90

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.

Glavlit, the Soviet censorship agency, combed some of the outgoing cables carefully, eliminating, among other things, mention of its own blue-pencil activity.

From Time Magazine Archive

He would "never go against the Weather Bureau," but once in a long while he does blue-pencil official forecasts that strike him as debatable.

From Time Magazine Archive

The thing I'd like to do if I ran a newspaper would be the telegraph editor and the blue-pencil man.

From Time Magazine Archive

But recently the Army has stretched the pretext of "security" to blue-pencil information critical of the Army.

From Time Magazine Archive

I never do, and Harmer has to blue-pencil my copy mercilessly.

From Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1907 to 1908 by Montgomery, L. M. (Lucy Maud)

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023