as in to delete
to show (something written) to be no longer valid by drawing a cross over or a line through it
military censors blue-penciled any remarks that could possibly be deemed critical
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Recent Examples of blue-pencil
Before getting sunk by a turgid love story — the kind of cinematic dead zone Thalberg would have blue-penciled in the screenplay stage — The Last Tycoon provides a good sense of what a producer actually does.
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Thomas Doherty, HollywoodReporter, 20 Apr. 2025
Thomas Doherty, HollywoodReporter, 20 Apr. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for blue-pencil
Verb
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This is particularly relevant in the case of ChatGPT, as OpenAI is, as of writing, obliged by a US federal court order to store all conversations, even those deleted by users or conducted in its Temporary Chat mode.—
Bernard Marr,
Forbes.com,
15 Sep. 2025
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Somehow, the queen can delete her own nuclear DNA and produce offspring that rely almost entirely on the sperm’s DNA.—
Ashley Strickland,
CNN Money,
13 Sep. 2025
Verb
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He's witnessed countless episodes of passengers wearing noise-canceling headphones and earbuds walking through airport terminals, oblivious to their surroundings and putting themselves and others in danger.—
Christopher Elliott,
Forbes.com,
13 Sep. 2025
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That proposal was canceled after bipartisan opposition in the Senate.—
Lauren Kent,
CNN Money,
13 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Blue-pencil.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/blue-pencil. Accessed 16 Sep. 2025.
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