[the adj. used absol. or elliptically.]
1. Blue color. (It may have a plural.)
a. 1300. Cursor M., 9920. Þe toiþer … Es al o bleu, men cals Ind.
c. 1500. Maid & Magpie, in Halliwell, Nugæ Poeticæ, 43. His love was as a paynted blewe.
1599. Greene, George a Gr. (1861), 258. Right Coventry blue.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Occas. Medit. (1851), 59. I do not like these reds and blues.
1810. Henry, Elem. Chem. (1826), I. 224. Its solution … first reddens, and then destroys, vegetable blues.
1821. Craig, Lect. Drawing, v. 270. Begin with the blue of the sky.
1846. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., I. II. I. vii. § 21. The blue of distance, however intense, is not the blue of a bright blue flower.
2. A pigment of a blue color: usually with some defining word prefixed, as Prussian, French, cobalt, smalt, ultramarine, royal.
1862. Handbk. Water-Col. (Winsor & Newton), 19. French blue or Imitative Ultramarine.
1862. Lond. Rev., 26 July, 87. Another highly valued and brilliant variety of Prussian blue, commercially known as Turnbull’s blue.
b. spec. A blue powder used by laundresses.
1618. Rowlands, Nt. Raven (1620), 34. Set her to starch a band, (I vow tis true) She euer spoyles the same with too much blew.
1800. New Ann. Direct., 231. Walton & Mitchel, Blue-makers, 10 Silver-street.
1822. Kitchiner, Cook’s Oracle, 500. As much powder Blue as will lie on a sixpence.
3. Blue clothing or dress; spec. a kind of stuff.
1482. Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccli. 321. The kyng … clad in blewe.
1527. MS. Invent. T. Cromwell. A rydyng cote of browne blewe weltyd with tawney vellet.
1611. Bible, Ezek. xxiii. 6. The Assyrians … Which were clothed with blew.
1721. C. King, Brit. Merch., II. 96. Plunkets, Violets, and Blues, formerly made in Suffolk.
1759. B. Martin, Nat. Hist. Eng., II. 53. Needham … which had a good trade once for Blues and Broad Cloths.
4. Elliptically, for blue species or varieties of animals, objects, or substances, the nature of which is explained by the context, e.g., one of the blue butterflies (Polyommatus); a blue artificial fly used in angling; a blue potato, etc.; blue china, etc.
1787. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 115. The sky-coloured blue … is a neat, curious, and beautiful fly.
1838. Dickens, Mem. Grimaldi, ii. 22. Capturing no fewer than four dozen Dartford Blues.
1845. Morn. Chron., 22 Nov., 5/2. The potatoes were salmons and blues.
1860. Gosse, Rom. Nat. Hist., 5. On the … open downs the lovely little ‘blues’ are frisking in animated play. Ibid. (1884), Nov., 833/2. Bits of old Nankin ‘blue.’
5. a. The sky; b. The sea.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, II. App. lxxxvii. 99. Ne any footsteps in the empty Blew.
1738. Wesley, Psalms, cxlvii. iv. Thro’ the etherial blue.
1821. Byron, Cain, II. i. 144. Oh, how we cleave the blue!
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., cxiv. Drown’d in yonder living blue The lark becomes a sightless song.
1861. L. L. Noble, Icebergs, 63. Far out upon the blue were many sails.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., IV. liv. 102. Where one may float between blue and blue.
6. = Blue Squadron (see BLUE a. 5 b).
1703. [see BLUE a. 5 b].
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Admiral, Thus we say the Admiral of the red, the Admiral of the blue.
1806. A. Duncan, Nelson, 72. Sir Horatio Nelson, as rear-admiral of the blue, carried the blue flag at the mizen.
7. pl. Applied to various companies of troops, distinguished by wearing blue. a. The Royal Horse Guards, in 1690 distinguished from b as the ‘Oxford Blues,’ from their commander, the Earl of Oxford. b. Dutch troops of William III. c. The troops of the French Republic of 1792.
1766. Wesley, Jrnl., 16 July. A whole troop of the Oxford Blues … kept them in awe.
1812. Examiner, 12 Oct., 652/2. The Blues are about to embark for Spain.
1813. Wellington, Lett., in Gurw., Disp., X. 69. I have been appointed Colonel of the Blues.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xvi. While vainly endeavouring to prevail on their soldiers to look the Dutch Blues in the face. Ibid., I. 294. Another body of household cavalry distinguished by blue coats and cloaks, and still called the Blues, was … quartered in the neighbourhood of the capital.
1878. Trimen, Regiments Brit. Army, 12. It [Royal Horse Guards] was also known as the ‘Blue Guards’ during the campaign in Flanders 1742–45, and is now commonly called ‘The Blues.’
8. As the color worn by a party or faction (identified with different principles at different times and places); hence, transf. an adherent of such party. Also true blue: see BLUE a. 1 e, 6.
1755. Gentl. Mag., XXV. 339. The blues being in the old interest, and the yellows in the new. Ibid. (1762), 442. Honest true blues, a staunch, firm, chosen band.
1790. Burns, Election Ballad, ix. As Queensberry blue and buff unfurl’d.
1835. Disraeli, Corr. w. Sister (1886), 35. Labouchere has picked up many blues (my colour).
1887. Morley, Cobden, I. 91. Making citizenship into something loftier and more generous than the old strife of Blues and Yellows.
9. Light blue and dark blue have become the distinctive colors of the representatives both of Eton and Harrow Schools, and of Cambridge and Oxford Universities, in their rival athletic contests. So the ‘Dark Blues’ denote Oxford men or Harrow boys; ‘to win his blue,’ or ‘to be a Blue,’ is to be chosen to represent his University or School in rowing, cricket, etc.; ‘an old Blue’ is one who has rowed or played in an inter-University contest.
1879. Daily News, 7 April, 3/2. At the Creek … the Light Blues were all but clear of their opponents. Ibid. (1882), 18 Jan., 2/2. Ainslie, of Oriel … may be successful in winning his blue.
1883. Standard, 8 May, 3/7. There are five ‘Old Blues’ playing. Ibid., 19 June, 3/3. He has … received his ‘blue.’
1884. Q. Rev., No. 316. 485. What [Eton] boy who has ‘won his blue,’ [etc.].
10. A ‘Blue-coat boy’; a scholar of Christ’s Hospital.
1834. W. Trollope (title), Christ’s Hospital, with Account of the Plan of Education … and Memoirs of Eminent Blues.
11. Short for ‘blue-stocking.’
1788. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary (1842), IV. 219. His literary preference of reading to a blue.
1813. Byron, Br. Abydos, II. v. note. Perhaps some of our own ‘blues’ might not be worse for bleaching.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 203. The company of village literati and village blues.
1832. Disraeli, Corr. w. Sister (1886), 6. There were a great many dames there of distinction, and no blues.
1849. Miss Muloch, Ogilvies, ii. (1875), 12. Every one talked of her as a ‘clever woman’—‘a blue.’
b. transf. Female learning or pedantry.
1824. Byron, Juan, XVI. xlvii. She also had a twilight tinge of ‘Blue.’
12. The blues (for ‘blue devils’): depression of spirits, despondency. colloq.
1807. W. Irving, Salmag. (1824), 96. In a fit of the blues.
1883. E. P. Roe, in Harper’s Mag., Dec., 55. Come to me when you have the blues.
13. Archery. (The second ring from the center of the target is colored blue.)
1882. Standard, 31 Aug., 6/4. The prize for the lady making the most blues … was won by Mrs. E., who made eight blues. Ibid. The Lady Paramount’s prize for most blues.
