blue
Forms
- Comparative
- bluer
- Superlative
- bluest
- Plural
- blues
Definitions
1.Depressed, melancholic, sad.(informal)
- But I'm bluer than blue / Sadder than sad.
- "Will you play some of the 'Garden' now?" she asked. "I think I should like it. I'm just the least bit blue."
2.Having a bluish or purplish shade to the skin due to a lack of oxygen to the normally deep-red red blood cells; cyanotic.
- The divers got them out of the car just in time – they were starting to turn blue.
- My hands were blue with cold.
3.Pale, without redness or glare.
- There was a blue notebook on the table.
- The French flag is blue, white, and red.
- No, the flowers are not green, but red, white, yellow or blue.
4.Of a blue hue.
- He was wearing a blue t-shirt.
- Why is the sky blue?
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.
- She watches the yachts in the creamy evening blues.
2.Anything coloured blue, especially to distinguish it from similar objects differing only in colour.
- I don't like red Smarties. Have you got a blue?
3.A blue dye or pigment.
4.Blue clothing.
- He was safe! Terrible call, blue!
- He was a rugby blue at Cambridge.
- The boys in blue marched to the pipers.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #940
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Uncommon
Etymology
From Middle English blew, blewe, from Anglo-Norman blew, from Middle French bleu, from Old French blöe, bleve, blef (“blue”), from Frankish *blāu (“blue”) (perhaps through a Late Latin blāvus, blāvius (“blue”) attested from Isidore of Seville), from Proto-Germanic *blēwaz (“blue, dark blue”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlēw- (“yellow, blond, grey”).