blue plate
Americannoun
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a plate, often decorated with a blue willow pattern, divided by ridges into sections for holding apart several kinds of food.
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Also called blue plate special. a specially priced main course, as of meat and vegetables, listed as an item on a menu, especially in an inexpensive restaurant.
Etymology
Origin of blue plate
First recorded in 1940–45
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.
Do you want a blue plate or a green?
From Slate • Dec. 7, 2020
"Cars like this one used to have a blue plate if they were owned by the state and a yellow plate if they were private," Guillermo tells me.
From BBC • Aug. 29, 2013
Is that the same con that's in chile con carne, the popular Mexican blue plate special?
From Time Magazine Archive
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In the kitchen, our helpers cut brown roasted ducks and arranged white moon-shaped cakes on a large blue plate.
From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung
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A moment later she found the chipped blue plate and lifted the napkin she’d draped over the top to keep flies off of the tortillas.
From "Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Pérez
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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.