|
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.
3. Low in spirits; melancholy; as, to feel blue.
4. Suited to produce low spirits; gloomy in prospect; as, thongs looked blue. [Colloq.]
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.
6. Literary; — applied to women; — an abbreviation of bluestocking. [Colloq.]
The ladies were very blue and well informed.
Thackeray. Blue asbestus. See Crocidolite. — Blue black, of, or having, a very dark blue color, almost black.
— Blue blood. See under Blood. — Blue buck (Zoöl.), a small South African antelope (Cephalophus
pygmæus); also applied to a larger species (Ægoceras leucophæus); the blaubok. — Blue cod (Zoöl.),
the buffalo cod. — Blue crab (Zoöl.), the common edible crab of the Atlantic coast of the United States
— Blue curls (Bot.), a common plant 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
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 mould, the blue fungus (Aspergillus glaucus)
which grows on cheese. Brande & C. — Blue Monday, a Monday following a Sunday of dissipation,
or itself given to dissipation — 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 (Zoöl.), 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. — 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.
For his religion . . .
'T was Presbyterian, true blue.
Hudibras. Blue
(Blue) 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.
|
