Definition of blue

Email this page to a friend

< bludgeon

blue agave >

blue    (bl) KEY 

NOUN:

1. 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.
2. 1. A pigment or dye imparting this hue.
   2. Bluing.
3. 1. An object having this hue.
   2. Dress or clothing of this hue: The ushers wore blue.
4. 1. A person who wears a blue uniform.
   2. blues A dress blue uniform, especially that of the U.S. Army.
5. often Blue
   1. A member of the Union Army in the Civil War.
   2. The Union Army.
6. A bluefish.
7. A small blue butterfly of the family Lycaenidae.
8. 1. The sky.
   2. The sea.

ADJECTIVE:
blu·er, blu·est

1. Of the color blue.
2. Bluish or having parts that are blue or bluish, as the blue spruce and the blue whale.
3. Having a gray or purplish color, as from cold or contusion.
4. Wearing blue.
5. 1. Gloomy; depressed. See Synonyms at depressed.
   2. Dismal; dreary: a blue day.
6. Puritanical; strict.
7. Aristocratic; patrician.
8. 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

1. From an unexpected or unforeseen source: criticism that came out of the blue.
2. 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:
bluely(Adverb), blueness(Noun)