Bluebeard

American  

[bloo-beerd] / ˈbluˌbɪərd /

noun

1. a fairy-tale character whose seventh wife found the bodies of her predecessors in a room she had been forbidden to enter.

2. any man alleged to have murdered a number of his wives or other women.

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Bluebeard British  

/ ˈbluːˌbɪəd /

noun

1. a villain in European folk tales who marries several wives and murders them in turn. In many versions the seventh and last wife escapes the fate of the others

2. a man who has had several wives

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Bluebeard Cultural  

1. A fairy tale character from the Charles Perrault collection. The character is a monstrous villain who marries seven women in turn and warns them not to look behind a certain door of his castle. Inside the room are the corpses of his former wives. Bluebeard kills six wives for their disobedience before one passes his test.

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Other Word Forms

• Bluebeardism noun

Example Sentences

Puppeteer Mark Down stages The Nightingale, promising life-size puppets alongside the cast of eight singers, while WNO’s former artistic director David Pountney directs Bluebeard’s Castle, with Bryn Terfel as Bluebeard and Michelle DeYoung as Judith.

From The Guardian • Jan. 1, 2020

Now on view in a handsome Spooky Action Theater production, directed by Helen R. Murray, Fréchette’s fable begins as a wry and suspenseful updating of the Bluebeard fairy tale.

From Washington Post • May 23, 2018

And Katy recommends Angela Carter's playful and subversive retellings of Charles Perrault's classic fairy tales, Bluebeard.

From Slate • May 19, 2017

Act II’s clutter of various looted sacred and profane sculptures piled on stacks of packing crates illustrated Caird’s notion that Scarpia is a collector in every sense of the word, kind of like Bartók’s Bluebeard.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 23, 2017

Yarn puddles all over the floor until all that is left are a few round, fuzzy balls with strange names like Pluto, Strawberry, and Bluebeard.

From "A Step from Heaven" by An Na