Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - blue

(bluer, bluest, blues) Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. Something that is blue is the colour of the sky on a sunny day. There were swallows in the cloudless blue sky... She fixed her pale blue eyes on her father’s. ...colourful blues and reds. COLOUR 2. The blues is a type of music which was developed by African American musicians in the southern United States. It is characterized by a slow tempo and a strong rhythm. N-PLURAL: the N 3. If you have got the blues, you feel sad and depressed. (INFORMAL) Interfering in-laws are the prime sources of the blues. N-PLURAL: the N 4. If you are feeling blue, you are feeling sad or depressed, often when there is no particular reason. (INFORMAL) There’s no earthly reason for me to feel so blue. = down ADJ: v-link ADJ 5. Blue films, stories, or jokes are about sex. ...a secret stash of porn mags and blue movies. ADJ: ADJ n 6. If something happens out of the blue, it happens unexpectedly. One of them wrote to us out of the blue several years later. PHRASE 7. blue moon: see moon