[f. the adj.]
1. trans. To make blue; spec. to heat (metal) so as to make it blue.
1606. Sylvester, Du Bartas (1621), 466. Plaid the painter, when he did so gild The turning globes, blew’d seas, and green’d the field.
1727. Mather, Yng. Man’s Comp., 309. To Blew Skins.
1816. W. Taylor, in Month. Mag., XLI. 330. He rivets coats of mail, Or the bright sword blade in his oven blues.
1855. Browning, Statue & Bust. The blood that blues the inside arm.
1881. Greener, Gun, 253. Any amateur may blue by placing the pan of charcoal upon a fire, and burying the work to be blued in it.
2. To treat (linen) with blue (see BLUE sb. 2 b).
1862. Lond. Rev., 16 Aug., 154. The articles of dress … being well starched, blued, and rough dried.
† 3. To cause to look blue, (or ? to blush). Obs.
1719. Ozell, trans. Misson’s Trav. Eng., 170 (D.). This action set many of the company a laughing, which very much blew’d the Countess.
† 4. intr. To blush. (slang.) Obs.
1709. Steele & Swift, Tatler, No. 71, ¶ 8. If a Virgin blushes, we no longer cry she Blues.
