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

Farley described a revelation about the erosion of what blue-collar work used to represent—stability, pride, and a single income that could support a family. —Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 30 Sep. 2025

What To Know As 67 percent of parents now would encourage their kids to skip college if another track was stable and paid well, blue-collar and trades work may be more promising to many soon-to-be high school graduates. —Suzanne Blake, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 Sep. 2025

More than just devastating the lives of these commuters — most of whom earn under $49,000 per year and work blue-collar jobs — each of these cars on the freeway is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. —Stan Oklobdzija, Mercury News, 16 Sep. 2025

Artificial intelligence and robotics are redefining both blue-collar and white-collar work. —Joseph Coughlin, Forbes.com, 16 Sep. 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