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blue
 (bl  )
KEY
NOUN:
- The hue of that portion of the visible spectrum lying between green and indigo, evoked in the human observer by radiant energy with wavelengths of approximately 420 to 490 nanometers; any of a group of colors that may vary in lightness and saturation, whose hue is that of a clear daytime sky; one of the additive or light primaries; one of the psychological primary hues.
-
- A pigment or dye imparting this hue.
- Bluing.
-
- An object having this hue.
- Dress or clothing of this hue:
The ushers wore blue.
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- A person who wears a blue uniform.
-
blues
A dress blue uniform, especially that of the U.S. Army.
- often
Blue
- A member of the Union Army in the Civil War.
- The Union Army.
- A bluefish.
- A small blue butterfly of the family Lycaenidae.
-
- The sky.
- The sea.
ADJECTIVE:
blu·er
,
blu·est
- Of the color blue.
- Bluish or having parts that are blue or bluish, as the blue spruce and the blue whale.
- Having a gray or purplish color, as from cold or contusion.
- Wearing blue.
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- Gloomy; depressed. See Synonyms at depressed.
- Dismal; dreary:
a blue day.
- Puritanical; strict.
- Aristocratic; patrician.
- Indecent; risqué:
a blue joke; a blue movie.
tr. & intr.v.
blued
,
blu·ing
,
blues
- To make or become blue.
IDIOMS:
blue in the face
- At the point of extreme exasperation:
I argued with them until I was blue in the face.
into the blue
- At a far distance; into the unknown:
spontaneously take a trip into the blue.
out of the blue
- From an unexpected or unforeseen source:
criticism that came out of the blue.
- At a completely unexpected time:
a long-unseen friend who appeared out of the blue.
ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English blue, bleu, from Old French bleu, of Germanic origin; see bhel-
1 in Indo-European roots
OTHER FORMS:
blue ly
(Adverb),
blueness
(Noun)
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