| English Dictionary |
BLUE (bluer, bluest)
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
, bluest Dictionary entry overview: What does blue mean?
• BLUE (noun)
The noun BLUE has 7 senses:
1. blue color or pigment; resembling the color of the clear sky in the daytime
2. blue clothing
3. any organization or party whose uniforms or badges are blue
4. the sky as viewed during daylight
5. used to whiten laundry or hair or give it a bluish tinge
6. the sodium salt of amobarbital that is used as a barbiturate; used as a sedative and a hypnotic
7. any of numerous small butterflies of the family Lycaenidae
Familiarity information: BLUE used as a noun is common.
• BLUE (adjective)
The adjective BLUE has 8 senses:
1. of the color intermediate between green and violet; having a color similar to that of a clear unclouded sky
2. used to signify the Union forces in the American Civil War (who wore blue uniforms)
3. filled with melancholy and despondency
4. characterized by profanity or cursing
5. suggestive of sexual impropriety
6. belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or aristocracy
7. morally rigorous and strict
8. causing dejection
Familiarity information: BLUE used as an adjective is common.
• BLUE (verb)
The verb BLUE has 1 sense:
1. turn blue
Familiarity information: BLUE used as a verb is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Blue color or pigment; resembling the color of the clear sky in the daytime
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Synonyms:
blue; blueness
Context example:
he had eyes of bright blue
Hypernyms ("blue" is a kind of...):
chromatic color; chromatic colour; spectral color; spectral colour (a color that has hue)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "blue"):
azure; cerulean; lazuline; sapphire; sky-blue (a light shade of blue)
powder blue (a pale blue color with grey in it)
steel blue (a greyish blue color)
Prussian blue (a dark greenish-blue color)
dark blue; navy; navy blue (a dark shade of blue)
aqua; aquamarine; cobalt blue; greenish blue; peacock blue; turquoise (a shade of blue tinged with green)
purplish blue; royal blue (a shade of blue tinged with purple)
ultramarine (a vivid blue to purple-blue color)
Derivation:
blue (turn blue)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Blue clothing
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Context example:
she was wearing blue
Hypernyms ("blue" is a kind of...):
article of clothing; clothing; habiliment; vesture; wear; wearable (a covering designed to be worn on a person's body)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Any organization or party whose uniforms or badges are blue
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Context example:
the Union army was a vast blue
Hypernyms ("blue" is a kind of...):
organisation; organization (a group of people who work together)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "blue"):
Union Army (the northern army during the American Civil War)
Sense 4
Meaning:
The sky as viewed during daylight
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)
Synonyms:
blue; blue air; blue sky; wild blue yonder
Context example:
he shot an arrow into the blue
Hypernyms ("blue" is a kind of...):
sky (the atmosphere and outer space as viewed from the earth)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Used to whiten laundry or hair or give it a bluish tinge
Classified under:
Nouns denoting substances
Synonyms:
Hypernyms ("blue" is a kind of...):
dye; dyestuff (a usually soluble substance for staining or coloring e.g. fabrics or hair)
Sense 6
Meaning:
The sodium salt of amobarbital that is used as a barbiturate; used as a sedative and a hypnotic
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Synonyms:
amobarbital sodium; Amytal; blue; blue angel; blue devil
Hypernyms ("blue" is a kind of...):
amobarbital (a barbiturate with sedative and hypnotic effects; used to relieve insomnia and as an anticonvulsant)
Sense 7
Meaning:
Any of numerous small butterflies of the family Lycaenidae
Classified under:
Nouns denoting animals
Hypernyms ("blue" is a kind of...):
lycaenid; lycaenid butterfly (any of various butterflies of the family Lycaenidae)
Holonyms ("blue" is a member of...):
genus Lycaena; Lycaena (type genus of the Lycaenidae; small slender butterflies with upper surface of wings usually metallic blue or green or copper)
| Declension: comparative and superlative |
Superlative: bluest
Sense 1
Meaning:
Of the color intermediate between green and violet; having a color similar to that of a clear unclouded sky
Synonyms:
Context example:
blue haze of tobacco smoke
Similar:
chromatic (being or having or characterized by hue)
Derivation:
blueness (blue color or pigment; resembling the color of the clear sky in the daytime)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Used to signify the Union forces in the American Civil War (who wore blue uniforms)
Context example:
a ragged blue line
Similar:
northern (in or characteristic of a region of the United States north of (approximately) the Mason-Dixon line)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Filled with melancholy and despondency
Synonyms:
blue; depressed; dispirited; down; down in the mouth; downcast; downhearted; gloomy; grim; low; low-spirited
Context example:
feeling discouraged and downhearted
Similar:
dejected (affected or marked by low spirits)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Characterized by profanity or cursing
Synonyms:
blasphemous; blue; profane
Context example:
profane words
Similar:
dirty ((of behavior or especially language) characterized by obscenity or indecency)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Suggestive of sexual impropriety
Synonyms:
blue; gamey; gamy; juicy; naughty; racy; risque; spicy
Context example:
spicy gossip
Similar:
sexy (marked by or tending to arouse sexual desire or interest)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or aristocracy
Synonyms:
aristocratic; aristocratical; blue; blue-blooded; gentle; patrician
Context example:
patrician tastes
Similar:
noble (of or belonging to or constituting the hereditary aristocracy especially as derived from feudal times)
Sense 7
Meaning:
Morally rigorous and strict
Synonyms:
blue; puritanic; puritanical
Context example:
blue laws
Similar:
nonindulgent; strict (characterized by strictness, severity, or restraint)
Sense 8
Meaning:
Causing dejection
Synonyms:
blue; dark; dingy; disconsolate; dismal; drab; drear; dreary; gloomy; grim; sorry
Context example:
grim rainy weather
Similar:
cheerless; depressing; uncheerful (causing sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy)
| Conjugation: |
... he / she / it blues Past simple: blued
Past participle: blued
-ing form: blueing
/ bluing Sense 1
Meaning:
Turn blue
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "blue" is one way to...):
color; colour; discolor; discolour (change color, often in an undesired manner)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s
Derivation:
blue (blue color or pigment; resembling the color of the clear sky in the daytime)
bluing (a process that makes something blue (or bluish))
Context examples
The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade of blue.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The field lines are shown in green and blue, extending beyond the disk into the galaxy's extended halo.
(Giant magnetic ropes seen in Whale Galaxy's halo, National Science Foundation)
But one could not look upon his cruel blue eyes, with their drooping, cynical lids, or upon the fierce, aggressive nose and the threatening, deep-lined brow, without reading Nature’s plainest danger-signals.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“When you take a photograph, the information stored in pixels is generally limited to just three components – red, green, and blue,” said co-first author Tom Albrow-Owen.
(Nanowires replace Newton’s famous glass prism, University of Cambridge)
The blue light simply flips the switch from normal to boost mode.
(Researchers Develop Insulin-Producing Cells Activated by Light for Diabetes, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
She put it down on her lap as we entered and looked at us with her frank, searching blue eyes.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The map shows lots of blue and purple in this region, representing water ice less than one foot (30 centimeters) below the surface; warm colors are over two feet (60 centimeters) deep.
(NASA's Treasure Map for Water Ice on Mars, NASA)
SOFIA's image shows gas in blue as it's heated by massive stars located near the center, and dust in green that is warmed both by existing massive stars and nearby newborn stars.
(SOFIA Reveals How the Swan Nebula Hatched, NASA)
The color blue in such views has been associated with young features on Ceres.
(New Ceres Images Show Bright Craters, NASA)
Cells are methylene blue positive on whole-mount sections of the intestinal mucosa.
(Aberrant Crypt Foci of the Mouse Intestinal Tract, NCI Thesaurus)
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