blue
 I. adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a red/green/blue etc colour
▪ Our door was painted a bright green colour.
baby blues
black and blue
▪ If you do that again, I’ll beat you black and blue.
black/blue/white/grey smoke
▪ Black smoke poured out of the engine.
blue baby
blue book
blue cheese (=a type of cheese with blue lines in it and a strong taste)
blue cheese
blue jeans
blue law
blue movie
blue on blue
▪ a ‘Blue on Blue’ incident which saw an RAF jet brought down by a Patriot missile
blue on blue
▪ a ‘Blue on Blue’ incident which saw an RAF jet brought down by a Patriot missile
blue ribbon
▪ the club’s prized blue riband award
blue ribbon (=first prize)
▪ For the second time she won the blue ribbon.
blue
▪ The sun shone brightly upon the clear blue sea.
blue
▪ The sky was blue and the sun was shining.
brown/blue/grey/green
▪ Both their children have blue eyes.
colour sth red/blue etc
▪ Sunset came and coloured the sky a brilliant red.
dark blue/green/pink etc
▪ a dark blue dress
deep blue/pale blue
▪ She looked into his deep blue eyes.
▪ The tiny child 's pale blue eyes stared up at her appealingly.
deep blue/pale blue
▪ She looked into his deep blue eyes.
▪ The tiny child 's pale blue eyes stared up at her appealingly.
dusky pink/orange/blue etc
▪ a dusky pink room
dye sth black/blue/blonde etc
▪ Priscilla’s hair was dyed jet black.
electric blue
light blue/green/grey etc
▪ She had blue eyes and light brown hair.
midnight blue
navy blue
▪ a navy blue sweater
paint sth (in) blue/red/green etc
▪ We painted the door blue.
▪ Paint the walls in a contrasting colour.
▪ The living room was painted in pastel shades of pink and blue.
powder blue
rhythm and blues
royal blue
scream blue murder informal (= scream very loudly with fear or anger)
▪ She flew into a rage and screamed blue murder at him.
turn (sth) red/blue/white etc
▪ Rose’s hair was already turning grey.
▪ In October the leaves turn orange and yellow.
▪ The sun had turned the sky a glowing pink.
white/red/blue etc
▪ I decided to use white paint throughout the house.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
 NOUN
cheese
▪ Blues is a delicious full fat soft blue cheese with a creamy texture and good bite.
▪ A sprinkling of blue cheese or Gorgonzola makes it extra special.
▪ Add Cheddar cheese, blue cheese and 2 cups flour.
▪ And the horseradish potato puree, braised greens, Maytag blue cheese and port wine sauce are also praiseworthy.
▪ Nearly all blue cheeses are scalded and lightly pressed and tend to crumble.
▪ The mold variety used in the making of blue cheeses has been in use for centuries and is apparently safe.
▪ If you fancy a blue cheese, chose Roquefort over Stilton - the difference is 40 calories an ounce!
▪ Of the remaining blue cheeses, Mycella is probably the best known.
chip
▪ The City also wants to take it easier after yesterday's barrage of trading statements from blue chip companies.
▪ Metal, paper and chemical makers were among the leading gainers, helping blue chips to an impressive advance.
▪ Many blue chip companies use team-based competitions with a series of mental and physical challenges.
▪ The index of blue chip stocks gained 159. 70 for the week.
▪ After the auction, the blue chip benchmark inched higher to end at 6,170.3, a gain of 4.8 points.
▪ That proved a bonanza in 1995, when blue chips were market leaders.
▪ Joanne Tearle finds that the blue chip loan comes in many guises and choosing one may be your greatest problem.
▪ Among blue chips, J. P. Morgan surrendered 2 5 / 8 to 79.
collar
▪ The dark blue collar and shoulder straps are lined with scarlet cloth and edged with white lace.
▪ They were blue collar in occupation, and they were haters.
▪ Though most managers recognised the remarkable achievements of the machinists, the programmers were unhappy that blue collar workers remained in control.
▪ They needed to put a little blue collar -- Carolina blue, if you will -- into all that pompous purple.
▪ The report demonstrated that the 1980s austerity measures had disproportionately affected blue collar workers in comparison with white collar workers.
▪ Beyond that, however labor markets are no longer a simple matter of distinguishing between white and blue collars.
▪ Maybe Madonna is, like Cher, what director Franc Roddam calls' a genuine blue collar actress.
jeans
▪ Brown hair, àla Beatles, blue anorak, tatty blue jeans and guitar.
▪ The faded blue jeans she wore that morning, her old tennis shoes, her white cotton sweater.
▪ The head of a smart high-street men's shop attempted to tell me why corduroys are superior to blue jeans.
▪ Seven months earlier my friend could be seen on campus wearing blue jeans and a shirt that said dumb things.
▪ He wore a pair of faded blue jeans and a rugby shirt.
▪ With his blond hair and blue eyes, Spelling plays a Valley dude who wears a tank top and blue jeans.
▪ Co-star Steve McFadden, who plays Phil Mitchell, settled for a bomber jacket with blue jeans.
▪ Alvin dressed in blue jeans, shirts and boots and looked like the renegade that he felt he was.
moon
▪ So now he just comes round once in a blue moon.
▪ A blue moon is the second full moon in one month.
▪ Once in a blue moon the addressing system itself changes.
▪ That happens only once in a blue moon, when the weather is cold enough and thus the ice thick enough.
▪ The most recent observation of a blue moon was in Edinburgh in 1950.
▪ And Eleanor was damn lucky to have him as an escort once in a blue moon.
murder
▪ His bus turned into an Inter-City express without brakes and he sat on top and screamed blue murder.
▪ It might get into the papers, and then she'd be down here knocking on my door and screaming blue murder.
▪ I think that should be stopped - blue murder, vandalism and the lot.
▪ They say people usually get upset and scream blue murder and all that shite, but no me.
ribbon
▪ Then he went on gazing at Thérèse, voluptuous in flowered chintz and blue ribbons.
▪ Then there was Raymond Lereaux who showed horses and won blue ribbons that he brought to school for Show and Tell.
▪ A cot swathed in draperies and blue ribbon stood isolated in a corner.
▪ Christine had friends in the Working Groups, and Tim wore the blue ribbon.
▪ There were two large bouquets and a bundle of letters tied with pale blue ribbon, presumably from stage-door admirers.
▪ The Longitude Act established a blue ribbon panel of judges that became known as the Board of Longitude.
▪ A large jug and basin, charmingly ornamented with a design of blue ribbon, was its centre-piece.
▪ There are blue devils and blue ribbons and blue bloods.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a bolt from/out of the blue
▪ Even so, dismissal should never come as a bolt from the blue, however exalted your place in the corporate hierarchy.
▪ Inspiration hit me like a bolt from the blue on the way home.
▪ The Mishcon job came like a bolt from the blue.
between the devil and the deep blue sea
in a (blue) funk
▪ Sam drove off in a funk.
▪ At extremely fast tempos this lilt is lost and they even out as they would in a funk or fusion context.
▪ Montross is frank enough to admit that all this put him in a funk for a third of the season.
once in a blue moon
▪ Once in a blue moon Eric will offer to help with the dishes, but usually he doesn't do any housework at all.
▪ I used to spend a lot of time in London, but now I only go there once in a blue moon.
▪ We go out to eat once in a blue moon.
▪ And Eleanor was damn lucky to have him as an escort once in a blue moon.
▪ So now he just comes round once in a blue moon.
▪ That happens only once in a blue moon, when the weather is cold enough and thus the ice thick enough.
slate blue/grey
▪ By flaking off successive layers, the tree displays a bark of beige, cinnamon, lime green and slate blue.
▪ Immature has tail brown but throat white, with most of bill slate blue.
▪ Matching long-line briefs, £19, s, m, l, Also in classic navy and slate grey.
▪ Most remarkably it continued to function under California's midday sun, when it's slate grey shell was too hot hold!
▪ The falls of the flowers are a delicate yellowish green veined with slate blue.
▪ The sky past his profiled head had gone slate blue above a jagged paleness of snow.
▪ They were hard pin-points of slate blue beneath bushy eyebrows.
the boys in blue
▪ I can tell you the boys in blue are pleased you've turned up.
▪ I could just as easily send the Boys in Blue.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ blue language
▪ a dark blue sweater
▪ Her jokes are too blue for most audiences.
▪ I found the kids watching a blue movie on the video last night.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Carrie's bright blue eyes mirrored her good health and she hummed happily to herself as she brushed down her best coat.
▪ Inside this box, the hot, red upwellings of the mantle moved past cold, blue downwellings.
▪ Quills of blue smoke rose out of the swinging ball.
▪ The man who shot Richard had grey hair and was wearing a black leather jacket, a blue jumper and jeans.
▪ There are blue laws and blue movies.
▪ Thousands of fertilized sea urchin eggs, starfish and blue clams returned to Earth with the astronauts.
II. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
ADJECTIVE
black
▪ We were pretty much trying to emulate a lot of the early black blues sound.
bright
▪ White predominated, sea-green and bright blue were also favourites.
▪ He was wearing some kind of uniform, navy blue with bright blue buttons.
▪ It is divided horizontally by color with bright blue on the head and back and yellow on the stomach and tail.
▪ The sky was bright blue, and the woods glowed with light.
▪ The rims of the eyes also have this same bright blue, and they retain this coloration in the adult stage.
brilliant
▪ From the heart of a large flat pebble-shaped stone he has revealed two fishes in brilliant, iridescent blues.
▪ It is light turquoise in the east, grading to deep, dark, brilliant blue in the west.
cobalt
▪ Kelly green, cobalt blue and fire-engine red.
dark
▪ Prussian blue, a dark rich blue discovered in Berlin in 1704, alluding to the colour of Tony Weller's face.
▪ Midway between sun and stagnant water he blazed in his glorious colors of putrefaction dark green, dark blue, black.
▪ All three stores looked lighter and brighter after the dark blues and browns of their old decor gave way to pastel colours.
▪ The smoke of smelters and charcoal kilns smudged a sky that all down the pass had been a dark, serene blue.
▪ Auburn and dark blue, honey and blood mixed together: the colour of a bruise.
▪ His eyes seemed darker blue and more wide open than usual.
▪ Mr Sammler, back walking the streets, which now were dark blue, a bluish glow from the street lamps.
▪ The tail is completely dark blue.
deep
▪ They had selected a full-skirted velvet frock in a deep royal blue which set off her auburn hair.
▪ The color of the body is a deep blue to purple and that of the head a bright orange-yellow.
▪ By morning thick clouds drift over, but the sky between them is deep blue and occasionally the sun peeks through.
▪ The sky is a deep blue.
▪ The sky has evolved into a mute deep blue, huge and high.
▪ Her eyelids were painted deep blue and her full mouth was a slick red.
light
▪ The light blues beat Oxford in a report judging the quality of research in 172 universities and colleges.
▪ Color: Light blue collars a pale neck, behind writhe thick green vines, exploding ultramarine blooms.
▪ On paper it appears the light blues are inches shorter ... and a few months older ... but what about on the water?
pale
▪ He threw my dress shirt over it so all was pale blue.
▪ It is the pale, icy blues and strong medium shades that are now the most popular.
▪ He was wearing pale blue brushed denim pants and a pale blue shirt that made his blue eyes look nearly luminous.
royal
▪ A box of royal blue was opened by the Court Chamberlain and the awards placed over the recipients' shoulders.
▪ They had selected a full-skirted velvet frock in a deep royal blue which set off her auburn hair.
NOUN
baby
▪ These cotton yellows, peachy pinks and baby blues transport us, delighted, to the land of Tupperware.
sky
▪ Walls a saturated sky blue, broken by gray the color of storm clouds.
VERB
beat
▪ There was always a way to beat bad weather blues and enjoy ourselves.
▪ Can a younger lover beat the ageing blues - or would a change of style do the trick for you?
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a bolt from/out of the blue
▪ Even so, dismissal should never come as a bolt from the blue, however exalted your place in the corporate hierarchy.
▪ Inspiration hit me like a bolt from the blue on the way home.
▪ The Mishcon job came like a bolt from the blue.
between the devil and the deep blue sea
dusty blue/pink etc
▪ The rising sun slowly turns the drab greys and dull browns of the mountains to patches of pale gold and dusty pinks.
in a (blue) funk
▪ Sam drove off in a funk.
▪ At extremely fast tempos this lilt is lost and they even out as they would in a funk or fusion context.
▪ Montross is frank enough to admit that all this put him in a funk for a third of the season.
medium brown/blue etc
▪ Beyond Volkswagens and medium blue cars or big black cars, Carla could not tell one car from the other.
▪ It came in two colours, medium brown or medium grey; it shone with a slightly oily sheen.
▪ She was slim, five feet four inches tall, and had medium brown skin.
once in a blue moon
▪ Once in a blue moon Eric will offer to help with the dishes, but usually he doesn't do any housework at all.
▪ I used to spend a lot of time in London, but now I only go there once in a blue moon.
▪ We go out to eat once in a blue moon.
▪ And Eleanor was damn lucky to have him as an escort once in a blue moon.
▪ So now he just comes round once in a blue moon.
▪ That happens only once in a blue moon, when the weather is cold enough and thus the ice thick enough.
slate blue/grey
▪ By flaking off successive layers, the tree displays a bark of beige, cinnamon, lime green and slate blue.
▪ Immature has tail brown but throat white, with most of bill slate blue.
▪ Matching long-line briefs, £19, s, m, l, Also in classic navy and slate grey.
▪ Most remarkably it continued to function under California's midday sun, when it's slate grey shell was too hot hold!
▪ The falls of the flowers are a delicate yellowish green veined with slate blue.
▪ The sky past his profiled head had gone slate blue above a jagged paleness of snow.
▪ They were hard pin-points of slate blue beneath bushy eyebrows.
the boys in blue
▪ I can tell you the boys in blue are pleased you've turned up.
▪ I could just as easily send the Boys in Blue.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Carolyn's the one dressed in blue.
▪ I especially like the rich blues and reds of the painting.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Come to think of it, Columbia wouldn't have been around if it hadn't been for the blues.
▪ Expect thunder, expect lightning, expect country and blues and rock and expect him to offer the unexpected, too.
▪ From the heart of a large flat pebble-shaped stone he has revealed two fishes in brilliant, iridescent blues.
▪ He saw a woman in the rich blue of a nursing uniform at the wheel.
▪ His eyes are a washed-out blue.
▪ On the other hand, blue and green are subdued and bring calm to a garden.
▪ The elegant spring spires of delphiniums are perhaps the truest of the blues.
▪ These good ole boys could turn the blues into a rainbow.
blue
I. blue1 S1 W2 /bluː/ adjective
[date : 1200-1300; Language : Old French; Origin : blou]
1. having the colour of the sky or the sea on a fine day ⇨ navy, navy blue:
▪ the blue waters of the lake
dark/light/pale/bright blue
▪ a dark blue raincoat
2. [NOT BEFORE NOUN]
informal sad and without hope SYN depressed:
▪ I’ve been feeling kind of blue.
3. informal blue jokes, stories etc are about sex, in a way that might offend some people ⇨ blue movie
4. argue/talk etc till you’re blue in the face
informal to argue, talk etc about something a lot, but without achieving what you want:
▪ You can tell them till you’re blue in the face, but they’ll still do what they want.
5. blue with cold
especially British English someone who is blue with cold looks extremely cold
6. go blue
British English if someone goes blue, their skin becomes blue because they are cold or cannot breathe properly
7. talk a blue streak
American English informal to talk very quickly without stopping
—blueness noun [UNCOUNTABLE]
⇨ black and blue, ⇨ once in a blue moon at once1(15), ⇨ scream blue murder at scream1(1)
II. blue2 noun
1. [UNCOUNTABLE AND COUNTABLE]
the colour of the sky or the sea on a fine day:
▪ She nearly always dresses in blue.
▪ the rich greens and blues of the tapestry
2. blues
(also the blues) [UNCOUNTABLE]a slow sad style of music that came from the southern US:
▪ a blues singer ⇨ rhythm and blues
3. the blues
[PLURAL] informal feelings of sadness:
▪ A lot of women get the blues after the baby is born.
4. out of the blue
informal if something happens out of the blue, it is very unexpected ⇨ a bolt from/out of the blue at bolt1(3)
5. Blue
[COUNTABLE] British English someone who has represented Oxford or Cambridge University at a sport, or the title given to such a person
6. the blue
literary the sea or the sky ⇨ boys in blue at boy1(9)
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