BLUING

bluing, blueing

(noun) a process that makes something blue (or bluish)

bluing, blueing, blue

(noun) used to whiten laundry or hair or give it a bluish tinge

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

Verb

bluing

present participle of blue

Noun

bluing (plural bluings)

A substance used in laundry to whiten clothes; blue

Any of several processes to protect steel against rust

Synonyms

• (laundry substance): laundry blue, dolly blue, washing blue

Anagrams

• lubing

Source: Wiktionary

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Blu"ing, n.

1. The act of rendering blue; as, the bluing of steel. Tomlinson.

2. Something to give a bluish tint, as indigo, or preparations used by washerwomen.

BLUE

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

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