BLUE-BLACK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does blue-black mean? 

• BLUE-BLACK (adjective)
  The adjective BLUE-BLACK has 1 sense:

1. of black tinged with blue

  Familiarity information: BLUE-BLACK used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BLUE-BLACK (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of black tinged with blue

Synonyms:

blue-black; bluish black

Similar:

achromatic; neutral (having no hue)

 Context examples 

In this dye system, iron acts as a mordant to hematoxylin rendering it insoluble, thereby allowing irreversible blue-black colored dyeing to the cell nucleus.

(Iron Hematoxylin Staining Method, NCI Thesaurus)

A measurement of the Howell-Jolly bodies (spherical, blue-black condensed DNA inclusions within the body of a red blood cell that appear under Wright-stain) in a biological specimen.

(Howell-Jolly Body Measurement, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

Gram-positive organisms will appear blue-black or purple while Gram-negative organisms will appear red.

(Gram Staining Method, NCI Thesaurus)

It usually presents as a single blue or blue-black papular lesion less than 1cm in diameter.

(Blue Nevus, NCI Thesaurus)

Its two most distinctive features are its blue-black tongue and its almost straight hind legs, which causes it to walk rather stilted.

(Chow Chow, NCI Thesaurus)

She drew his head down to hers as she spoke, and there, with their cheeks together, were the two faces, the one stamped with the waning beauty of womanhood, the other with the waxing strength of man, and yet so alike in the dark eyes, the blue-black hair and the broad white brow, that I marvelled that I had never read her secret on the first days that I had seen them together.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)