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Pronunciation Guide
HOW TO PRONOUNCE

blue

/blu/

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What does blue mean?

adjective

  1. Of a blue hue.
  2. (informal) Depressed, melancholic, sad.
  3. Having a bluish or purplish shade to the skin due to a lack of oxygen to the normally deep-red red blood cells; cyanotic.
More meanings (49)

adjective

  1. Pale, without redness or glare.
  2. Supportive of, run by (a member of), pertaining to, or dominated by the Democratic Party.
  3. Supportive of or related to the Liberal Party.
  4. Supportive of or related to the Conservative Party.
  5. Of, dominated by, or shifted toward the higher-frequency, or "bluer", end of the electromagnetic spectrum.
  6. Having a colour charge of blue.
  7. Extra rare; left very raw and cold.
  8. Having a coat of fur of a slaty gray shade.
  9. (informal) Risqué; obscene; profane; pornographic.
  10. (archaic) Severe or overly strict in morals; gloomy.
  11. (archaic) Literary; scholarly; bluestockinged.
  12. (dated, slang) Drunk.

noun

  1. The colour of the clear sky or the deep sea; the colour midway between green and violet in the visible spectrum and one of the primary additive colours.
  2. Anything coloured blue, especially to distinguish it from similar objects differing only in colour.
  3. A blue dye or pigment.
  4. Blue clothing.
  5. A blue uniform. See blues.
  6. A member of a sports team that wears blue colours; (in the plural) a nickname for the team as a whole. See also blues.
  7. (slang) An umpire, in reference to the typical dark-blue colour of the umpire's uniform. Sometimes perceived by umpires as derogatory when used by players or coaches while disputing a call.
  8. Sporting colours awarded by a university or other institution for sporting achievement, such as representing one's university, especially and originally at Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England. See also full blue, half blue.
  9. A person who has received such sporting colours.
  10. (slang) A member of law enforcement.
  11. The sky, literally or figuratively.
  12. The ocean; deep waters.
  13. The far distance; a remote or distant place.
  14. A dog or cat with a slaty gray coat.
  15. One of the colour balls used in snooker, with a value of five points.
  16. Any of the butterflies of the subfamily Polyommatinae in the family Lycaenidae, most of which have blue on their wings.
  17. A bluefish.
  18. An argument or brawl.
  19. A liquid with an intense blue colour, added to a laundry wash to prevent yellowing of white clothes.
  20. Any of several processes to protect metal against rust.
  21. A type of firecracker.
  22. One of the three colour charges for quarks.
  23. A member or supporter of the Conservative Party.
  24. A blue cheese.
  25. (slang) Risqué or pornographic material.
  26. A letterman at Oxford or Cambridge.
  27. Synonym of British Blue (“a breed of cat”).
  28. (historical) A bluestocking.
  29. (historical) A member of the Royal Horse Guards (which merged with the 1st Dragoons in 1969)

verb

  1. To make or become blue; to turn blue.
  2. To treat the surface of steel so that it is passivated chemically and becomes more resistant to rust.
  3. To brighten by treating with blue (laundry aid).
  4. (slang) To fight, brawl, or argue.
  5. (dated, slang) To spend (money) extravagantly; to blow.

proper noun

  1. A surname from German. An anglicization of German Blau.
  2. A male nickname, occasionally used as a formal given name. (Australia) Nickname for a person with ginger hair.
  3. (rare) A female given name from English, typically used in conjoined names like Bonnie Blue or Blue Bell.
Wiktionary contributors Wiktionary contributors

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/blu/

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

He dropped his arms and went up to the wagon, smiling amiably and looking at them out of his pale blue eyes.
Willa CatherO Pioneers!Project Gutenberg ebook #24
Instead, she was a tiny scrap of a woman, with soft pink cheeks, mild blue eyes, and a mouth like a baby’s.
L. M. (Lucy Maud) MontgomeryAnne of the IslandProject Gutenberg ebook #51
More book examples (3)
The corpse was dressed in a uniform that had once been blue, but was now faded to a melancholy shade of green.
Stephen CraneThe Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil WarProject Gutenberg ebook #73
She was enveloped in a loose dressing-gown of blue and silver, but a black sequin-covered dinner-dress lay upon the couch beside her.
Arthur Conan DoyleThe Return of Sherlock HolmesProject Gutenberg ebook #108
After another week of rain the high arch of blue sky appeared again and the sun which poured down was quite hot.
Frances Hodgson BurnettThe Secret GardenProject Gutenberg ebook #113