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true blue
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noun
a nonfading blue dye or pigment.
a person who is true-blue.
(in the 17th century) the color adopted by the Covenanters in contradistinction to the royal red.
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Origin of true blue
First recorded in 1665–75
Words nearby true blue
Trudy, true, true anomaly, true believer, true bill, true blue, trueborn, truebred, true bug, true colors, true course
Other definitions for true blue (2 of 2)
true-blue
[ troo-bloo ]
/ ˈtruˈblu /
adjective
unwaveringly loyal or faithful; staunch; unchangingly true.
Origin of true-blue
First recorded in 1665–75; origin uncertain; perhaps associated with the Covenanters (Scottish Presbyterians) of the 17th century, whose flag, a white St. Andrew’s Cross on a blue field (still the national flag of Scotland), was in opposition to the red scarves of the Royalist cavalry
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use true blue in a sentence
British Dictionary definitions for true blue
true-blue
adjective
unwaveringly or staunchly loyal, esp to a person, a cause, etc
noun true blue
mainly British a staunch royalist or Conservative
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
Other Idioms and Phrases with true blue
true blue
Loyal, faithful, as in You can count on her support; she's true blue. This expression alludes to the idea of blue being the color of constancy, but the exact allusion is disputed. One theory holds it alludes to the unchanging blue sky, another to the fastness of a blue dye that will not run. Blue has been the identifying color of various factions in history. In the mid-1600s the Scottish Covenanters, who pledged to uphold Presbyterianism, were called true blue (as opposed to red, the color of the royalists). In the 1800s the same term came to mean “staunchly Tory,” and in America, “politically sound.”
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.