[W/K] :: Bluer

  Blue \Blue\ (bl[=u]), a. [Compar. Bluer (bl[=u]"[~e]r);
     superl. Bluest.] [OE. bla, blo, blew, blue, livid, black,
     fr. Icel.bl[=a]r livid; akin to Dan. blaa blue, Sw. bl[*a],
     D. blauw, OHG. bl[=a]o, G. blau; but influenced in form by F.
     bleu, from OHG. bl[=a]o.]
     1. Having the color of the clear sky, or a hue resembling it,
        whether lighter or darker; as, the deep, blue sea; as blue
        as a sapphire; blue violets. "The blue firmament."
        --Milton.
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     2. Pale, without redness or glare, -- said of a flame; hence,
        of the color of burning brimstone, betokening the presence
        of ghosts or devils; as, the candle burns blue; the air
        was blue with oaths.
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     3. Low in spirits; melancholy; as, to feel blue.
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     4. Suited to produce low spirits; gloomy in prospect; as,
        thongs looked blue. [Colloq.]
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     5. Severe or over strict in morals; gloom; as, blue and sour
        religionists; suiting one who is over strict in morals;
        inculcating an impracticable, severe, or gloomy mortality;
        as, blue laws.
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     6. Literary; -- applied to women; -- an abbreviation of
        bluestocking. [Colloq.]
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              The ladies were very blue and well informed.
                                                    --Thackeray.
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     Blue asbestus. See Crocidolite.
  
     Blue black, of, or having, a very dark blue color, almost
        black.
  
     Blue blood. See under Blood.
  
     Blue buck (Zool.), a small South African antelope
        ({Cephalophus pygm[ae]us); also applied to a larger
        species ({[AE]goceras leucoph[ae]us); the blaubok.
  
     Blue cod (Zool.), the buffalo cod.
  
     Blue crab (Zool.), the common edible crab of the Atlantic
        coast of the United States ({Callinectes hastatus).
  
     Blue curls (Bot.), a common plant ({Trichostema
        dichotomum), resembling pennyroyal, and hence called also
        bastard pennyroyal.
  
     Blue devils, apparitions supposed to be seen by persons
        suffering with delirium tremens; hence, very low
        spirits. "Can Gumbo shut the hall door upon blue devils,
        or lay them all in a red sea of claret?" --Thackeray.
  
     Blue gage. See under Gage, a plum.
  
     Blue gum, an Australian myrtaceous tree ({Eucalyptus
        globulus), of the loftiest proportions, now cultivated in
        tropical and warm temperate regions for its timber, and as
        a protection against malaria. The essential oil is
        beginning to be used in medicine. The timber is very
        useful. See Eucalyptus.
  
     Blue jack, Blue stone, blue vitriol; sulphate of copper.
        
  
     Blue jacket, a man-of war's man; a sailor wearing a naval
        uniform.
  
     Blue jaundice. See under Jaundice.
  
     Blue laws, a name first used in the eighteenth century to
        describe certain supposititious laws of extreme rigor
        reported to have been enacted in New Haven; hence, any
        puritanical laws. [U. S.]
  
     Blue light, a composition which burns with a brilliant blue
        flame; -- used in pyrotechnics and as a night signal at
        sea, and in military operations.
  
     Blue mantle (Her.), one of the four pursuivants of the
        English college of arms; -- so called from the color of
        his official robes.
  
     Blue mass, a preparation of mercury from which is formed
        the blue pill. --McElrath.
  
     Blue mold or Blue mould, the blue fungus ({Aspergillus
        glaucus) which grows on cheese. --Brande & C.
  
     Blue Monday,
        (a) a Monday following a Sunday of dissipation, or itself
            given to dissipation (as the Monday before Lent).
        (b) a Monday considered as depressing because it is a
            workday in contrast to the relaxation of the weekend.
            
  
     Blue ointment (Med.), mercurial ointment.
  
     Blue Peter (British Marine), a blue flag with a white
        square in the center, used as a signal for sailing, to
        recall boats, etc. It is a corruption of blue repeater,
        one of the British signal flags.
  
     Blue pill. (Med.)
        (a) A pill of prepared mercury, used as an aperient, etc.
        (b) Blue mass.
  
     Blue ribbon.
        (a) The ribbon worn by members of the order of the Garter;
            -- hence, a member of that order.
        (b) Anything the attainment of which is an object of great
            ambition; a distinction; a prize. "These
            [scholarships] were the --blue ribbon of the college."
            --Farrar.
        (c) The distinctive badge of certain temperance or total
            abstinence organizations, as of the --Blue ribbon
            Army.
  
     Blue ruin, utter ruin; also, gin. [Eng. Slang] --Carlyle.
  
     Blue spar (Min.), azure spar; lazulite. See Lazulite.
  
     Blue thrush (Zool.), a European and Asiatic thrush
        ({Petrocossyphus cyaneas).
  
     Blue verditer. See Verditer.
  
     Blue vitriol (Chem.), sulphate of copper, a violet blue
        crystallized salt, used in electric batteries, calico
        printing, etc.
  
     Blue water, the open ocean.
  
     Big Blue, the International Business Machines corporation.
        [Wall Street slang.] PJC
  
     To look blue, to look disheartened or dejected.
  
     True blue, genuine and thorough; not modified, nor mixed;
        not spurious; specifically, of uncompromising
        Presbyterianism, blue being the color adopted by the
        Covenanters.
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              For his religion . . .
              'T was Presbyterian, true blue.       --Hudibras.
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  blue
       adj 1: having a color similar to that of a clear unclouded sky;
              "October's bright blue weather"- Helen Hunt Jackson;
              "a blue flame"; "blue haze of tobacco smoke" [syn: bluish,
               blueish, light-blue, dark-blue, blue-black]
       2: used to signify the Union forces in the Civil War (who wore
          blue uniforms); "a ragged blue line"
       3: low in spirits; "lonely and blue in a strange city";
          "depressed by the loss of his job"; "a dispirited and
          resigned expression on her face"; "downcast after his
          defeat"; "feeling discouraged and downhearted" [syn: depressed,
           dispirited, down(p), downcast, downhearted, down
          in the mouth, low, low-spirited]
       4: characterized by profanity or cursing; "foul-mouthed and
          blasphemous"; "blue language"; "profane words" [syn: blasphemous,
           profane]
       5: suggestive of sexual impropriety; "a blue movie"; "blue
          jokes"; "he skips asterisks and gives you the gamy
          details"; "a juicy scandal"; "a naughty wink"; "naughty
          words"; "racy anecdotes"; "a risque story"; "spicy gossip"
          [syn: gamy, gamey, juicy, naughty, racy, risque,
           spicy]
       6: belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or
          aristocracy; "an aristocratic family"; "aristocratic
          Bostonians"; "aristocratic government"; "a blue family";
          "blue blood"; "the blue-blooded aristocracy"; "of gentle
          blood"; "patrician landholders of the American South";
          "aristocratic bearing"; "aristocratic features";
          "patrician tastes" [syn: aristocratic, aristocratical,
           blue-blooded, gentle, patrician]
       7: morally rigorous and strict; "blue laws"; "the puritan work
          ethic"; "puritanic distaste for alcohol"; "she was
          anything but puritanical in her behavior" [syn: blue(a),
           puritan, puritanic, puritanical]
       8: causing dejection; "a blue day"; "the dark days of the war";
          "a week of rainy depressing weather"; "a disconsolate
          winter landscape"; "the first dismal dispiriting days of
          November"; "a dark gloomy day"; "grim rainy weather" [syn:
           dark, depressing, disconsolate, dismal, dispiriting,
           gloomy, grim]
       n 1: the color of the clear sky in the daytime; "he had eyes of
            bright blue" [syn: blueness]
       2: blue clothing; "she was wearing blue"
       3: any organization or party whose uniforms or badges are blue;
          "the Union army was a vast blue"
       4: the sky as viewed during daylight; "he shot an arrow into
          the blue" [syn: blue sky, blue air, wild blue yonder]
       5: used to whiten laundry or hair or give it a bluish tinge
          [syn: bluing, blueing]
       6: the sodium salt of amobarbital that is used as a
          barbiturate; used as a sedative and a hypnotic [syn: amobarbital
          sodium, blue angel, blue devil, Amytal]
       7: any of numerous small chiefly blue butterflies of the family
          Lycaenidae
       v : turn blue
       [also: bluest, bluer]

  bluer
       See blue