In the 18th century, the Swedish government made coffee and its paraphernalia (including cups and dishes) illegal for its supposed ties to rebellious sentiment.
BLUE
blue, dark, dingy, disconsolate, dismal, gloomy, grim, sorry, drab, drear, dreary
(adjective) 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”
blue, bluish, blueish
(adjective) of the color intermediate between green and violet; 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”
blasphemous, blue, profane
(adjective) characterized by profanity or cursing; “foul-mouthed and blasphemous”; “blue language”; “profane words”
gloomy, grim, blue, depressed, dispirited, down, downcast, downhearted, down in the mouth, low, low-spirited
(adjective) filled with melancholy and despondency; “gloomy at the thought of what he had to face”; “gloomy predictions”; “a gloomy silence”; “took a grim view of the economy”; “the darkening mood”; “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”
aristocratic, aristocratical, blue, blue-blooded, gentle, patrician
(adjective) 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”
blue
(adjective) used to signify the Union forces in the American Civil War (who wore blue uniforms); “a ragged blue line”
blue, gamy, gamey, juicy, naughty, racy, risque, spicy
(adjective) 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”
blue
(noun) any of numerous small butterflies of the family Lycaenidae
blue
(noun) blue clothing; “she was wearing blue”
blue, blueness
(noun) blue color or pigment; resembling the color of the clear sky in the daytime; “he had eyes of bright blue”
blue
(noun) any organization or party whose uniforms or badges are blue; “the Union army was a vast blue”
bluing, blueing, blue
(noun) used to whiten laundry or hair or give it a bluish tinge
blue
(verb) turn blue
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology 1
Adjective
blue (comparative bluer, superlative bluest)
Of the colour blue.
(informal) Depressed, melancholic, sad.
Pale, without redness or glare; said of a flame.
(politics) Supportive of, run by (a member of), pertaining to, or dominated by a political party represented by the colour blue.
(politics, in particular, in the US) Supportive of, run by (a member of), pertaining to, or dominated by the Democratic Party. [late 20th c.]
(AU, politics) Supportive of or related to the Liberal Party.
(astronomy) Of the higher-frequency region of the part of the electromagnetic spectrum which is relevant in the specific observation.
(of steak) Extra rare; left very raw and cold.
(of a dog or cat) Having a coat of fur of a slaty gray shade.
(archaic) Severe or overly strict in morals; gloomy.
(archaic, of women) literary; bluestockinged.
(particle physics) Having a color charge of blue.
(entertainment) Risque or obscene
Antonyms
• (having blue as its colour): nonblue, unblue
• (having blue as its colour charge): antiblue
Noun
blue (countable and uncountable, plural blues)
(countable and uncountable) The colour of the clear sky or the deep sea, between green and violet in the visible spectrum, and one of the primary additive colours for transmitted light; the colour obtained by subtracting red and green from white light using magenta and cyan filters; or any colour resembling this.
A blue dye or pigment.
Any of several processes to protect metal against rust.
Blue clothing
(in the plural) A blue uniform. See blues.
(slang) A member of law enforcement
The sky, literally or figuratively.
The ocean; deep waters.
The far distance; a remote or distant place.
A dog or cat with a slaty gray coat.
(snooker) One of the colour balls used in snooker, with a value of five points.
(entomology) Any of the butterflies of the subfamily Polyommatinae in the family Lycaenidae, most of which have blue on their wings.
A bluefish.
(Australia, colloquial) An argument.
A liquid with an intense blue colour, added to a laundry wash to prevent yellowing of white clothes.
(British) A type of firecracker.
(now, historical) A bluestocking.
(particle physics) One of the three color charges for quarks.
Verb
blue (third-person singular simple present blues, present participle bluing or blueing, simple past and past participle blued)
(ergative) To make or become blue.
(transitive, metallurgy) To treat the surface of steel so that it is passivated chemically and becomes more resistant to rust.
(transitive, laundry) To brighten by treating with blue (laundry aid)
(transitive, slang) To spend (money) extravagantly; to blow.
Etymology 2
Adjective
blue (comparative more blue, superlative most blue)
(entertainment, informal) Pornographic or profane.
Synonyms
• adult, X-rated; see also pornographic
Anagrams
• Buel, lube
Proper noun
Blue
A surname. An anglicization of German Blau.
(rare) A female given name from English, typically used in conjoined names like Bonnie Blue or Blue Bell.
A male nickname, occasionally used as a formal given name.
Noun
Blue (plural Blues)
A letterman at Oxford or Cambridge.
(historical) A member of the Royal Horse Guards (which merged with the 1st Dragoons in 1969)
synonym of British Blue
Anagrams
• Buel, lube
Source: Wiktionary
Blue, a. [Compar. Bluer; superl. Bluest.] Etym: [OE. bla, blo, blew, blue, Sw. bl, D. blauw, OHG. bl, G. blau; but influenced in form by F. bleu, from OHG. blao.]
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.
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 (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 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 (as the Monday before Lent).
– 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, 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.
2. A pedantic woman; a bluestocking. [Colloq.]
3. pl. Etym: [Short for blue devils.]
Definition: Low spirits; a fit of despondency; melancholy. [Colloq.] Berlin blue, Prussian blue.
– Mineral blue. See under Mineral.
– Prussian blue. See under Prussian.
Blue, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Blued; p. pr. & vb. n. Bluing.]
Definition: To make blue; to dye of a blue color; to make blue by heating, as metals, etc.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
26 November 2024
TRANSPOSITION
(noun) (music) playing in a different key from the key intended; moving the pitch of a piece of music upwards or downwards
Coffee Trivia
