blue

1 of 3

adjective

ˈblü

bluer; bluest

Synonyms of blue next

: of the color whose hue is that of the clear sky : of the color blue (see blue entry 2 sense 1)

a blue jacket

her bright blue eyes

The house is blue with white shutters.

: bluish

the blue haze of tobacco smoke

: discolored by or as if by bruising

blue with cold

: bluish gray

a blue cat

: low in spirits : melancholy

has been feeling blue

: marked by low spirits : depressing

a blue funk

things looked blue

: wearing blue

the blue team

of a woman : learned, intellectual

… the ladies were very blue and well-informed …—

W. M. Thackeray

: puritanical

… a blue Sunday city …—

James Street

: profane, indecent

a blue movie

: off-color, risqué

blue jokes

music : of, relating to, or used in blues (see blues sense 3)

a blue song

US politics : tending to support Democratic candidates or policies

As has become increasingly clear over the past few general elections, with their red states and blue states, an American Presidential campaign is no longer truly national.—

Hendrik Hertzberg

compare purple sense 3, red sense 5

bluely adverb

blueness noun

blue

2 of 3

noun

plural blues

: a color whose hue is that of the clear sky or that of the portion of the color spectrum lying between green and violet

Blue is his favorite color.

shades of blue

: a pigment or dye that colors blue

: bluing

adding blue to the laundry

: blue clothing or cloth

will be wearing blue

blues plural : a blue costume or uniform

wearing their dress blues

: a Union soldier in the American Civil War

often capitalized : the Union army

the Blue versus the Gray

a(1)

: sky

(2)

: the far distance

disappeared into the blue

: sea

: a blue object

the horse that won the blue [=blue ribbon]

… is bartered … like a stack of blues [=blue chips] in a Reno casino.—

John Lewis

: bluestocking

praised the writings of her fellow blues

biology : any of numerous small chiefly blue butterflies (family Lycaenidae)

: bluefish

fishing for blues

: blue cheese

physics : one of the three colors (see color entry 1 sense 15) that quarks have in the theory of quantum chromodynamics

One cannot have a single quark on its own because it would have a color (red, green, or blue). Instead, a red quark has to be joined to a green and a blue quark by a "string" of gluons (red + green + blue = white). Such a triplet constitutes a proton or a neutron.—

Stephen Hawking

blue

3 of 3

verb

blued; blueing or bluing; blues

transitive verb

: to make (something) blue in color: such as

: to dye, tint, or paint (something) blue

Last, the generation of the grandmothers, in immaculately blued hair …—

John Updike

Tattoos blued his upper arms.—

Jerry Spinelli

: to heat (iron or steel) to about 550 to 600°F (288 to 316°C) so that it acquires a bluish protective coating

the blued barrel of the gun

Between banks shrouded with snow, the river gleamed darkly, like blued steel with gold chips of sunlight dancing on each riffle.—

Pete Bodo

intransitive verb

: to turn blue

their blueing fingers

Phrases

blue in the face

: extremely exasperated

argued until he was blue in the face

out of the blue

: without advance notice : unexpectedly

the job offer came out of the blue

blue the air

informal

: to curse angrily

He sliced the air with his fists and blued the air with his mouth.—

Steve Kelley

I have been stealing my father's copy (of Massachusetts Wildlife) for a long time, but last week he found an issue on my desk and blued the air a bit.—

Stephen King Donovan

Example Sentences

Adjective was shocked at the blue banter on that satellite-radio talk show a cold, dreary day always leaves me blue Noun Her favorite color is blue. a mixture of blues and greens They sailed off into the blue.

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

There’s still a blue goose wearing a sombrero and playing a guitar painted on the brick wall near a side patio. —

Sarah Blaskovich, Dallas News, 18 May 2023 Primary colors for bees are green, blue and ultraviolet. —

Stephen Buchmann, The Conversation, 17 May 2023 The actress, 77, debuted brand-new blue and purple hair on the Cannes Film Festival red carpet. —

Town & Country, 17 May 2023 Ashley Walker, a political consultant for Deegan, said that campaigning on local issues and with a candidate who connected well with voters were key to flipping Jacksonville from red to blue. —

Patricia Mazzei, BostonGlobe.com, 17 May 2023 These red, white, and blue slice and bake cookies are the perfect way to bake a homemade dessert with little effort. —

Lindsay Silberman, townandcountrymag.com, 17 May 2023 Last year's numbers (in blue) covered much of the same overall range, but the majority of test results fell between 20Mbps and 100Mbps. —

Brian Westover, PCMAG, 17 May 2023 Available in purple and blue, this apron is made of cotton canvas with a water-resistant lining. —

Renee Freemon Mulvihill, Better Homes & Gardens, 17 May 2023 Staff rushed the kids inside and locked down the building, Aydoun said; her daughter’s favorite blue slide sat unused next to crime tape. —

Lauren Lumpkin, Washington Post, 17 May 2023

Noun

The Anchorage Concert Association presents The Violins of the World, which blends Eastern and Western musical traditions with elements of blues, Celtic and even Mongolian soundscapes. —

Anchorage Daily News, 12 May 2023 They are made from the popcorn fabric and come in three colors including Splash blue and a dark green called Dragonfly. —

Nicola Fumo, Peoplemag, 11 May 2023 His last band, the North Avenue Stompers, formed in 2013, mixed jump blues and rockabilly in equal measure. —

Terence Mcardle, Washington Post, 9 May 2023 Joe Bonamassa is widely regarded to be one of the best blues musicians in the business. —

Glenn Peoples, Billboard, 4 May 2023 Fishman suggests she was most closely allied with older blues and hillbilly artists such as Riley Puckett, Skip James, and Alberta Hunter, but even those lineages can’t account for Converse’s idiosyncrasies. —

Jeremy Lybarger, The New Republic, 24 Apr. 2023 Its people overwhelmingly vote blue in a sea of red. —

Cara Buckley Jamie Kelter Davis, New York Times, 22 Apr. 2023 As hinted by Saturday’s crawfish event, Chapman plans to steer Humphrey’s back to its blues, funky rock and jazz roots. —

Matt Wake | Mwake@al.com, al, 22 Apr. 2023 The music, which mostly is instrumental, includes Zappa originals, cover songs, and improvisational jams that the estate says lean on R&B, blues, and jazz influences. —

Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 21 Apr. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'blue.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.