blue

1 depicting or referring to sexual matters in a way that is unacceptable in polite society shocked at the blue banter she heard on that satellite-radio talk show Synonyms bawdy, obscene, coarse, crude, dirty, filthy, foul, gross, gutter, impure, indecent, lascivious, lewd, locker-room, nasty, pornographic, porny, profane, raunchy, ribald, smutty, stag, trashy, unprintable, vulgar, wanton, X-ratedRelated Words broad, coarse-grained, gamy (or gamey), off, off-color (or off-colored), racy, risqué, salacious, salty, suggestive; barnyard, earthy, scatological; immodest, indecorous, indelicate, low, unbecoming; depraved, kinky, louche, naughty, perverse, perverted, wicked; exceptionable, objectionable, unacceptable, undesirable, unwanted, unwelcome; abhorrent, debasing, disgusting, loathsome, offensive, repellent (also repellant), repugnant, repulsive, revolting; distasteful, obnoxious, unpleasant; blamable, blameworthy, censurable, reprehensible; atrocious, infamous; abusive, scurrilous; hard-core, soft, soft-coreNear Antonyms priggish, prim, prudish, puritanical, staid, straitlaced (or straightlaced), Victorian; correct, decorous, genteel, nice, polite, proper, respectable, seemly; innocuous, inoffensive; acceptable, agreeable, desirable, pleasant, pleasing, welcome; appropriate, becoming, fit, meet, suitable; immaculate, perfect, pure, spotless, virginal; approved, endorsed (also indorsed), sanctionedAntonyms clean, decent, G-rated, nonobscene, wholesome

2 feeling unhappiness a cold, dreary day always leaves me blue Synonyms bad, sad, brokenhearted, cast down, crestfallen, dejected, depressed, despondent, disconsolate, doleful, down, downcast, downhearted, down in the mouth, droopy, forlorn, gloomy, glum, hangdog, heartbroken, heartsick, heartsore, heavyhearted, inconsolable, joyless, low, low-spirited, melancholic, melancholy, miserable, mournful, saddened, sorrowful, sorry, unhappy, woebegone, woeful, wretchedRelated Words aggrieved, distressed, troubled, uneasy, unquiet, upset, worried; despairing, hopeless, sunk; disappointed, discouraged, disheartened, dispirited; suicidal; dolorous, lachrymose, lugubrious, plaintive, tearful; regretful, rueful; agonized, anguished, grieving, wailing, weeping; black, bleak, cheerless, comfortless, dark, darkening, depressing, desolate, dismal, drear, dreary, elegiac (also elegiacal), funereal, gray (also grey), morbid, morose, murky, saturnine, somber (or sombre), sullenNear Antonyms ecstatic, elated, enraptured, entranced, euphoric, exhilarated, exuberant, exultant, overjoyed, rapturous, rhapsodic (also rhapsodical); blithe, blithesome, jocose, jocular, jocund, jolly, jovial, lightsome, merry, mirthful; excited, thrilled; hopeful, optimistic, rosy, sanguine; encouraged, heartened; animated, bouncing, energetic, frisky, jaunty, lively, peppy, perky, spirited, sprightful, sprightly, springy, vital, vivacious, zippy; content, gratified, pleased, satisfied; beaming, grinning, laughing, smiling; boon, carefree, careless, cavalier, devil-may-care, easygoing, happy-go-lucky, insouciant, lighthearted, unconcernedAntonyms blissful, buoyant, buoyed, cheerful, cheery, chipper, delighted, glad, gladdened, gladsome, gleeful, happy, joyful, joyous, jubilant, sunny, upbeat

3 hinting at or intended to call to mind matters regarded as indecent she was one of the first female comics to use blue humor in her act Synonyms bawdy, suggestive, gamy (or gamey), lewd, off, off-color (or off-colored), racy, ribald, risqué, salty, spicyRelated Words leering; barnyard, coarse, coarse-grained, crude, earthy, foul, gross, vulgar; dirty, filthy, gutter, indecent, lascivious, locker-room, nasty, obscene, pornographic, porny, prurient, raunchy, smutty, stag, unprintable, unpublishable, warm, X-rated; immodest, indecorous, indelicate, naughtyNear Antonyms clean, decent, G-rated, nonobscene; innocuous, inoffensive; priggish, prim, prudish, puritanical, staid, straitlaced (or straightlaced), Victorian; correct, decorous, genteel, nice, polite, proper, respectable, seemly

4 much given to learning and thinking a book club that had been founded many years earlier by the blue, progressive women of the city Synonyms intellectual, cerebral, eggheaded, geeky, highbrow, highbrowed, intellectualist, intellectualistic, long-haired (or longhair), nerdish, nerdyRelated Words cultivated, cultured; middlebrow; erudite, learned, literate, polyhistoric, polymath (or polymathic), scholarly, well-read; academic (also academical), bookish, professorial; didactic, high-toned, hyperintellectual, pedantic; high-hat, snobbish, snobby, snooty; educated, schooled; brainy, bright, brilliant, clever, intelligent, quick-witted, smartNear Antonyms uncultivated, uncultured; ignorant, illiterate, uneducated, unlettered, unread; dumb, foolish, idiotic (also idiotical), moronic, slow, stupid, unintelligent; benighted, unenlightenedAntonyms anti-intellectual, lowbrow, nonintellectual, philistine