bluings
plural of bluing
• subling
Source: Wiktionary
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, 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
24 November 2024
(noun) a person (usually but not necessarily a woman) who is thoroughly disliked; “she said her son thought Hillary was a bitch”
The Boston Tea Party helped popularize coffee in America. The hefty tea tax imposed on the colonies in 1773 resulted in America switching from tea to coffee. In the lead up to the Revolutionary War, it became patriotic to sip java instead of tea. The Civil War made the drink more pervasive. Coffee helped energize tired troops, and drinking it became an expression of freedom.
