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

Older, blue-collar White voters are equally central to House Republicans — most of whom now represent primarily White, working-class districts where the median income lags the national average. —Ronald Brownstein, Mercury News, 6 Dec. 2025

This represents the distinction between blue-collar and white-collar workers. —Erin Parish, Miami Herald, 5 Dec. 2025

Children from blue-collar warrens straddling the road strutted about. —Nabil Salih, Time, 4 Dec. 2025

Year-over-year changes show that annual payroll declines have accelerated since January—albeit continuing a long-term trend—and have pushed blue-collar job growth into negative territory for the first time since the pandemic. —Hugh Cameron, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Dec. 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