blue-collar

adjective

blue-col·​lar ˈblü-ˈkä-lər 

1

: of, relating to, or constituting the class of wage earners whose duties call for the wearing of work clothes or protective clothing compare white-collar

2

: having characteristics associated with blue-collar workers: such as

a

: having, showing, or appealing to unpretentious or unsophisticated tastes

a new blue-collar serial … woven around a minor-league baseball team

—Steven Flax

b

: dependable and hard-working rather than showy or spectacular

a blue-collar athlete

Examples of blue-collar in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The legend plays an ordinary woman in a blue-collar family who basically starts to come apart at the seams. —Brian Tallerico, Vulture, 18 Apr. 2025

Over the last few decades, blue-collar communities from Michigan to West Virginia have been hollowed out by the mass decline of American manufacturing, from steel to automobiles. —Jenny Jarvie, Los Angeles Times, 17 Apr. 2025

On the Clock, translated into English by Jordan Stump, which gives a new level of detail to the realities of blue-collar labor. —Rhian Sasseen, The Atlantic, 17 Apr. 2025

This is about onshoring good-paying, blue-collar jobs. —Jennifer Kite-Powell, Forbes.com, 16 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1929, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for blue-collar

• footballer
• installer
• caller
• collar
• crawler
• dollar
• faller
• haller
• hauler
• holler
• scholar
• smaller

Kids Definition

blue-collar

adjective

ˈblü-ˈkäl-ər

: of or relating to the class of workers whose duties require work clothes