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

Some foreign leaders also promised generous investments in new factories that one day might employ the president’s blue-collar supporters. —David J. Lynch, Washington Post, 29 Mar. 2026

Cruz portrayed the Republican party as a group of blue-collar workers and populists, blasting Democrats as coastal elites who are out of touch with the average American. —Sarah Bahari, Dallas Morning News, 28 Mar. 2026

The Senate voted 30-2 Thursday to approve state employee raises for a largely blue-collar bargaining unit without the objections raised in the House on Wednesday about the deal’s long-term affordability. —Mark Pazniokas, Hartford Courant, 27 Mar. 2026

And business leaders like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang have highlighted that opportunities to land secure, six-figure-paying blue-collar jobs are on the rise—thanks in part to the data center boom. —Preston Fore, Fortune, 25 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