the pure color of a clear sky; the primary color between green and violet in the visible spectrum, an effect of light with a wavelength between 450 and 500 nanometers.
something having a blue color.
Place the blue next to the red.
a person who wears blue or is a member of a group characterized by some blue symbol.
Tomorrow the blues will play the browns.
(often initial capital letter) a member of the Union army in the American Civil War or the army itself.
any of several blue-winged butterflies of the family Lycaenidae.
Printing. blueline.
the blue,
the sky.
the sea.
the remote distance.
They've vanished into the blue somewhere.
of the color of blue.
a blue tie.
(initial capital letter) of or relating to the Union army in the American Civil War.
(of the skin) discolored by cold, contusion, fear, or vascular collapse.
depressed in spirits; dejected; melancholy.
She felt blue about not being chosen for the team.
holding or offering little hope; dismal; bleak.
a blue outlook.
characterized by or stemming from rigid morals or religion.
statutes that were blue and unrealistic.
marked by blasphemy.
The air was blue with oaths.
(of an animal's pelage) grayish-blue.
indecent; somewhat obscene; risqué.
a blue joke or film.
Politics.
relating to, supporting, or belonging to the Democratic Party in the United States; Democratic.
The county effectively turned blue, with all 38 district judges elected being Democrats.
British. politically conservative.
to make blue; dye a blue color.
to tinge with bluing.
Don't blue your clothes till the second rinse.
out of the blue, suddenly and unexpectedly.
The inheritance came out of the blue as a stroke of good fortune.
blue in the face, exhausted and speechless, as from excessive anger, physical strain, etc..
I reminded him about it till I was blue in the face.
any of a group of colours, such as that of a clear unclouded sky, that have wavelengths in the range 490–445 nanometres. Blue is the complementary colour of yellow and with red and green forms a set of primary colours
a dye or pigment of any of these colours
blue cloth or clothing
dressed in blue
a sportsperson who represents or has represented Oxford or Cambridge University and has the right to wear the university colour (dark blue for Oxford, light blue for Cambridge)
an Oxford blue
the honour of so representing one's university
an informal name for Tory
any of numerous small blue-winged butterflies of the genera Lampides, Polyommatus , etc: family Lycaenidae
archaic short for bluestocking
slang a policeman
archery a blue ring on a target, between the red and the black, scoring five points
a blue ball in snooker, etc
another name for blueing
slang an argument or fight
he had a blue with a taxi driver
Also: bluey. slang a court summons, esp for a traffic offence
informal a mistake; error
apparently from nowhere; unexpectedly
the opportunity came out of the blue
into the unknown or the far distance
of the colour blue
(of the flesh) having a purple tinge, as from cold or contusion
depressed, moody, or unhappy
dismal or depressing
a blue day
indecent, titillating, or pornographic
blue films
bluish in colour or having parts or marks that are bluish
a blue fox
a blue whale
rare aristocratic; noble; patrician See blue blood
a blue family
relating to, supporting, or representing the Democratic Party Compare red 1
to make, dye, or become blue
(tr) to treat (laundry) with blueing
slang (tr) to spend extravagantly or wastefully; squander
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English blewe, from Anglo-French blew, bl(i)u, bl(i)ef “blue, livid, discolored,” Old French blo, blau ( French bleu ), from unattested Germanic blǣwaz; compare Old English blǣwen, contraction of blǣhǣwen “deep blue, perse,” Old Frisian blāw, Middle Dutch blā(u), Old High German blāo ( German blau ), Old Norse blār
Among other things, blue is a color and a dreary mood. If the blue sky and ocean have turned gray and stormy, you might be blue because your day at the beach is ruined. Whether it's a primary color or a saddened mood, blue is used often as an adjective for people and things. Blue is a mix of green and purple shades, and it's the favorite color of many. The color blue might bring thoughts of first-place blue ribbons or police officers in blue uniforms, and it colors many flags of the world. Blue is everywhere, but there isn't a lot of blue food unless it's colored with dye. Even blueberries are mostly purple.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Even down to the coloring, the branding — like orange and blue, going into that sunset-type vibe,” Ohwobete said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
Usually, all that blue would have felt like a gift.
From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2026
"At first I thought my husband was joking, with the blue sky and the fires dying down," she said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 28, 2026
This theme continues in the bathrooms, which are all different colors, including yellow and blue.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
He’s sitting at the table, and his blue-framed glasses come complete with matching blue straps.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
Blue Origin, Stoke Space and United Launch Alliance all plan more launches from that region, as does SpaceX.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
Species that can be recorded during the survey include the Peacock, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Brimstone and Small Copper.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
For these cars, and these engineers, the Blue Bird of Happiness sounds like a squawking flock of Michelins.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
Yeah, we knew that when they beat the Blue Jays.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
The Blue Door is dark no matter what time of the day you visit, and it smells of popcorn and beer.
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
“You don’t improve your jazz in the studio. You’re in the studio because of the jazz and blues that you know,” Johnson said in one interview.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Later on, in a highly unusual move, she’s accompanied by leading lights of the blues recording genre—Papa Charlie Jackson, Tampa Red, Blind Blake.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
And on the twangy blues number “Ringing Hollow,” Mr. Jagger notes that “Lady Liberty don’t look so good / When she’s wearing a frown.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
A solid debut, “England’s Newest Hitmakers” features covers of songs by Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry and Jimmy Reed, firmly grounding the group in its American blues and R&B influences.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
Furnished in elaborate velvets, silks, and brocades, it’s a riot of scarlet and deep blues and greens, everything rich and dark, like overripe fruit.
From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black
One entry describes begonia as “a deep pink that is bluer, lighter, and stronger than average coral . . . and bluer and stronger than sweet william—called also gaiety.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
Firstly, they are two to three times as bright as traditional halogens, and their "colour temperature" is bluer and whiter, which mimics natural daylight.
From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2026
These results challenge the long held idea that the earliest stars would produce explosions that were distinctly brighter or bluer than those seen today.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 28, 2025
Not everyone supports the flight to bluer skies.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 19, 2024
I’d hate to think there was anybody around with bluer eyes than yours.
From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
Once the bluest of blue-chip stocks, IBM’s biggest-ever decline on Tuesday following a profit warning did little to rattle investors focused on a dip in inflation and on AI winners.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
His research is the bluest of blue-sky: he uses quantum computers to predict how sub-atomic particles behave.
From BBC ● Mar. 17, 2026
Also on the letter was Ritchie Torres of New York’s 15th District, similarly one of the bluest districts in America; erstwhile Democratic presidential wannabe Dean Phillips of Minnesota; and California’s newest senator-to-be, Adam Schiff.
From Slate ● Apr. 30, 2024
Without such action, the bluest skies you’ve ever seen will give way for Seattle to be called the grunge capital of the world in a whole different sense of the word.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 1, 2023
He had the bluest eyes I’d ever seen.
From "Made You Up" by Francesca Zappia
As we talked, the greens blued into ultramarine or yellowed into chartreuse.
From New York Times ● Feb. 24, 2022
Facebook is the classic example of how the individual investor can get screwed, blued and tattooed.
From Forbes ● Sep. 1, 2012
The Tikka T3 Deluxe features a blued T3-barreled action in a high-grade walnut stock with classic three-point checkering, a rosewood forend tip and a grip cap with an antique silver-colored T3 medallion.
From Time Magazine Archive
The afternoon air thickened and blued with gasoline fumes.
From Time Magazine Archive
From the standpoint of a stationary observer, light reflected off you is reddened as you depart and blued as you return.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Wash blue, or blueing, is a laundry product with iron powder and just a hint of blue dye.
From Salon ● Mar. 17, 2021
The Glen Alden Coal Co. of Buffalo and Rochester, N. Y., has made the last wash a blueing process.
From Time Magazine Archive
This circumstance has led Sociologists Peter and Brigitte Berger to suggest that if what Charles Reich calls "the greening of America" goes on apace, it may shade into a "blueing of America."
From Time Magazine Archive
Why do we run clothes through blueing water?
From Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts by Bacon, Josephine Dodge Daskam
Greens may be obtained by dyeing with any of the yellow dyes and blueing in the Indigo Vat or with Indigo Extract.
From Vegetable Dyes Being a Book of Recipes and Other Information Useful to the Dyer by Mairet, Ethel M.
The colour actually comes from a process that starts with boiling water and grinding laundry bluing cubes, which are usually used to wash white clothes.
From BBC ● Feb. 11, 2024
Although Castle made works with color, utilizing a variety of materials that include laundry bluing, watercolor, crayon and even colored ink leached from magazine pages, these are black soot-and-spit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2023
Some on Reddit fixed this by sanding theirs down to take the shine off of the finish, and another recommended using an acrylic topcoat and another chemical bluing.
From The Verge ● Mar. 9, 2022
When a congressional seat opened up in a bluing stretch of Phoenix’s eastern suburbs, Sinema ran and won.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 6, 2021
“But what a lot of work to boil the clothes in the large pots with the bluing powder.”
From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar
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.
