bolt from (out of) the blue
An unexpected event that strikes like lightning from the sky: “He had been with the company for eighteen years; when he was fired, it must have felt like a bolt from the blue.”
Nearby words
bolshy, bolson, bolster, bolt, bolt boat, bolt from (out of) the blue, bolt from the blue, a, bolt hole, bolt upright, bolt-action, bolt-hole
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.