blue
part of speech
adjective (blue, bluer, bluest); noun (blue, blues; Australian slang: a blue — a fight or a mistake)
meaning for a pupil
1) Blue is the color of a clear sky or the sea. tree →
2) Feeling blue means feeling sad. tree →
3) Blues is a kind of slow, sad music. tree →
4) (casual) «Out of the blue» means suddenly; «once in a blue moon» means very rarely; «until you're blue in the face» means for a long time with no result. tree →
5) (Australia, NZ slang) A blue is a fight or a mistake: «they had a blue»; «Bluey» is a nickname for a red-haired person. tree →
6) (rude) «Blue» jokes or language are rude or about sex, not for children; «turn the air blue» means swear a lot. tree →
7) (formal) Exams and science say «azure», «navy», «cobalt», «of a blue hue» and «a cyan pigment». tree →
sense in the lessons
a color that sorts things into groups to count or compare; blue is a primary color; phrases «out of the blue» (suddenly, without warning), «once in a blue moon» (very rarely), «feel blue», «blue whale», «blue ribbon» (first prize); in casual talk «feeling a bit blue», «they had a blue» (Australia, a fight), «true blue» (Australia: loyal, real); in rough talk «he turned the air blue when he dropped the 3 eggs» (swore a lot); in the exam voice «counters of a blue hue», «the fraction of blue items», «azure»
examples
- The bag has 6 blue marbles and 4 red ones. tree →
- Half of the balloons are blue. tree →
- How many more blue beads than green beads? tree →
- The sky is blue on a sunny day. tree →
- Mix blue and yellow to make green. tree →
- He felt blue when his friend moved away. tree →
- The blue whale is the biggest animal. tree →
- The letter came out of the blue. tree →
- We visit the beach once in a blue moon. tree →
- Mum and Dad had a blue about the 50-dollar bill. tree →
- You can shout till you're blue in the face, it's still 12. tree →
- A container holds 6 items of a blue hue and 4 of a red hue. State the fraction that is blue. tree →
note
Sorts things into groups. Trap: the blue ones are a part; the whole is the sum of all colors. «of a blue hue» in an exam just means blue. «a blue» in Australian slang is a fight, not a color. «Blue» sounds like «blew» (past of «blow»).
In the corpora
- A siren and flashing blue lights mean police are rushing to an emergency, and other drivers must pull over to let them through.
- So common questions, like why the sky is blue, get good answers, because thousands of people have explained them well.
- Ultramarine blue, made from a stone, once cost more than gold.
- Mandrills, the monkeys with red and blue faces, live in the rainforests of central Africa, not on the open savanna.
- Snakes shed their skin in one piece as they grow, starting at the lips, and their eyes turn cloudy blue just before.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «blue» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.