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

Disowned at birth by his obscenely wealthy family, blue-collar Becket Redfellow (Glen Powell) will stop at nothing to reclaim his inheritance, no matter how many relatives stand in his way. —Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 20 Feb. 2026

Jobs data from February 2025 to last month shows a 166,000 total loss in blue-collar jobs, which also includes construction, mining, and warehousing. —Sasha Rogelberg, Fortune, 20 Feb. 2026

The country has struggled with structural joblessness in the past, but the problem has tended to afflict blue-collar workers, not white-collar ones. —Annie Lowrey, The Atlantic, 18 Feb. 2026

Mike is a career blue-collar government worker who doesn’t want his job to end. —Joe Otterson, Variety, 18 Feb. 2026

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