bluebottle
Americannoun
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a composite plant, Centaurea cyanus, having narrow leaves and blue flower heads.
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Australian. Portuguese man-of-war.
noun
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another name for the blowfly
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any of various blue-flowered plants, esp the cornflower
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an informal word for a policeman
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an informal name for Portuguese man-of-war
Etymology
Origin of bluebottle
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.
My mother laughed at me one fateful beach day as she pulled a Pacific man o’ war jellyfish — known in Australia as a bluebottle — from my body as I screamed.
From New York Times • Apr. 10, 2022
Elm Farm has produced bluebottle larvae for decades, as bait for recreational fishers.
From Science Magazine • Oct. 14, 2015
Kai Kupferschmidt Mick Grant, a farmer in the United Kingdom, has long raised bluebottle larvae for anglers.
From Science Magazine • Oct. 14, 2015
At times Sam Brown's production makes Gill's subtext overly apparent: the cast are onstage throughout so that, when Dennis goes to kill a bluebottle, he attacks his father seen praying behind Annemarie Woods's set.
From The Guardian • Oct. 21, 2010
There was a bluebottle buzzing around, and for a minute we had a laugh playing “blue bottle tennis,” throwing our hands about to make the demented creature go from one to the other of us.
From "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro
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.
