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bluebottle

[ bloo-bot-l ]

noun

  1. a composite plant, Centaurea cyanus, having narrow leaves and blue flower heads.
  2. Australian. Portuguese man-of-war.


bluebottle

/ ˈbluːˌbɒtəl /

noun

  1. another name for the blowfly
  2. any of various blue-flowered plants, esp the cornflower
  3. an informal word for a policeman
  4. an informal name for Portuguese man-of-war
“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


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Word History and Origins

Origin of bluebottle1

First recorded in 1545–55; blue + bottle 1
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Example Sentences

Yet, although he could take no exercise, he used to eat no less than seventy large bluebottle flies every evening.

Paying not the least attention to the big bluebottle fly that buzzed her nose, Sue stretched full-length and dozed in the sun.

The bluebottle fly, tiring of its futile efforts to annoy her, buzzed importantly off in search of a more responsive victim.

From time to time, the bluebottle and the flesh fly perch on the trellis-work, make a short investigation and then decamp.

I put the bluebottle's eggs to hatch on a piece of meat and leave the worms to do their work as they please.

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