blue

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. [1913 Webster]

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 (Zo"ol.), a small South African antelope ({Cephalophus pygm[ae]us}); also applied to a larger
species ({[AE]goceras leucoph[ae]us}); the blaubok.

Blue cod (Zo"ol.), the buffalo cod.

Blue crab (Zo"ol.), 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. Slang --Carlyle.

Blue spar (Min.), azure spar; lazulite. See Lazulite.

Blue thrush (Zo"ol.), 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 Blue (bl=u), n. 1. One of the seven colors into which the rays of light
divide themselves, when refracted through a glass prism;
the color of the clear sky, or a color resembling that,
whether lighter or darker; a pigment having such color.
Sometimes, poetically, the sky; as, to fly off into the
blue.
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2. A pedantic woman; a bluestocking. Colloq. [1913 Webster]

3. pl. for blue devils. Low spirits; a fit of despondency; melancholy. [Colloq.]
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Berlin blue, Prussian blue.

Mineral blue. See under Mineral.

Prussian blue. See under Prussian. [1913 Webster]

Blue Blue, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Blued; p. pr. & vb. n. {Bluing}.]
To make blue; to dye of a blue color; to make blue by
heating, as metals, etc.
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Source: The Collaborative International Dictionary of English