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

Trump’s tariff agenda aimed to spark a blue-collar job boom by enticing companies to reshore manufacturing. —Brian Cheung, NBC news, 5 Mar. 2026

Before the war, Dubai’s stock market had risen to the highest level since 2006, as the emirate’s economy and real estate market benefited from an ability to attract everyone from the super-rich to blue-collar workers. —Matthew Martin, semafor.com, 4 Mar. 2026

Ian Andrews, vice president of labor relations and large contractors at NECA, said the scale of demand tied to data centers has sparked a blue-collar boom the electrical field has waited decades to see. —Preston Fore, Fortune, 2 Mar. 2026

Neither are the physical skills that packers, drivers, builders, and other blue-collar workers possess, and which robotics companies are busy trying to replicate. —John Cassidy, New Yorker, 2 Mar. 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