See Also: BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD OF ME(finance)
BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD(finance)
sky-blue(dictionary)
ice-blue(dictionary)
blue-sky(dictionary)
Blue Sky(money)
blue-eye(medicine)
blue law(dictionary)
sky-blue(dictionary)
blue(1)(dictionary)

blue(2) (iou)



blue noun. [blu:] Also blew. ME.
[The adjective used ellipt. or absol.]
Blue colour; a shade of this. ME.
Alice blue, cobalt blue, electric blue, Eton blue, navy blue, Prussian blue, royal blue, soluble blue, violet-blue, etc.
J. Ruskin The blue of distance, however intense, is not the blue of a bright blue flower.
b. A pigment of a blue colour (freq. with specifying word); a blue substance; spec. a blue powder used as a whitener in laundering. L15.
French blue: see FRENCH adjective. scratch blue: see SCRATCH verb. SCRATCHED blue. VERDIGRIS blue.
S. Rowlands Set her to starch a band..She euer spoyles the same with too much blew.
Blue clothing, dress, or uniform; blue fabric. ME.
men in blue, boys in blue, etc., policemen; the Royal Navy; US Federal troops.
b. spec. The uniform of the Union troops in the American Civil War. US. M19.
ellipt. Anything distinguished by blue colour, as the blue ball in snooker, a blue butterfly (spec. one of the family Lycaenidae), etc. L16.
Admiral of the Blue Hist.: of the Blue squadron (one of three divisions of the Royal Navy made between the 17th and 19th cents.). Danish blue: see DANISH adjective. RUSSIAN Blue. See also BLUES.
The clear sky; the sea; the desert; the indefinite distance, the unknown. M17.
bolt from the blue, bolt out of the blue: see BOLT noun1. out of the blue without warning, unexpectedly.
George Eliot Where one may float between blue and blue. J. T. Story I am not..one of those people who can vanish into the blue never to be heard of again. N. MacCaig The weather doodles a faint cloud / on the blue / then pensively washes it out.
As the colour adopted by a party, faction, etc. (cf. BLUE adjective 5); transf. a member of such a group. M17.
dark blue, light blue: adopted by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge respectively.
b. = BLUESTOCKING noun. arch. L18.
c. (Also Blue.) A person who has represented his or her university (esp. Oxford or Cambridge) or school in athletics, a sport, etc.; such a distinction. L19.
get one's blue, win one's blue, etc., represent one's university etc. in a sporting contest.
A soldier, police officer, etc., in blue uniform. Usu. in pl. M18.
the Blues (in the British army) the Royal Horse Guards, later merged with the 1st Dragoons as the Blues and Royals.
R. Kipling Next time you see the 'blue' ashore you do not stare unintelligently.
An argument, a fight or brawl; a mistake, a blunder. Austral. & NZ slang. M20.
K. Tennant Every time Rene comes round there's some kind of a blue. N. Shute I put up a blue right away by ordering a pink gin.
Comb.: blue bag a bag containing laundry blue, used also in the treatment of insect bites and stings; blue spot the spot on which the blue ball is placed in snooker.
? The usual spelling until 18 was blew.