3. pl. [Short for blue devils.] Low spirits; a fit of despondency; melancholy. [Colloq.]
Berlin blue, Prussian blue. -- Mineral blue. See under Mineral. -- Prussian blue. See under Prussian.
Blue, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Blued (&?;); p. pr. & vb. n. Bluing.] To make blue; to dye of a blue color; to make blue by heating, as metals, etc.
Blue"back` (&?;), n. (Zoöl.) (a) A trout (Salmo oquassa) inhabiting some of the lakes of Maine. (b) A salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) of the Columbia River and northward. (c) An American river herring (Clupea æstivalis), closely allied to the alewife.
Blue"beard (&?;), n. The hero of a mediæval French nursery legend, who, leaving home, enjoined his young wife not to open a certain room in his castle. She entered it, and found the murdered bodies of his former wives. -- Also used adjectively of a subject which it is forbidden to investigate.
The Bluebeard chamber of his mind, into which no eye but his own must look.
Carlyle.
Blue"bell` (&?;), n. (Bot.) (a) A plant of the genus Campanula, especially the Campanula rotundifolia, which bears blue bell-shaped flowers; the harebell. (b) A plant of the genus Scilla (Scilla nutans).
Blue"berry (&?;), n. [Cf. Blaeberry.] (Bot.) The berry of several species of Vaccinium, an ericaceous genus, differing from the American huckleberries in containing numerous minute seeds instead of ten nutlets. The commonest species are V. Pennsylvanicum and V. vacillans. V. corymbosum is the tall blueberry.
Blue"bill` (&?;), n. (Zoöl.) A duck of the genus Fuligula. Two American species (F. marila and F. affinis) are common. See Scaup duck.
Blue"bird` (&?;), n. (Zoöl.) A small song bird (Sialia sialis), very common in the United States, and, in the north, one of the earliest to arrive in spring. The male is blue, with the breast reddish. It is related to the European robin.
Pairy bluebird (Zoöl.), a brilliant Indian or East Indian bird of the genus Irena, of several species.
{ Blue" bon`net or Blue"-bon`net } (&?;), n. 1. A broad, flat Scottish cap of blue woolen, or one wearing such cap; a Scotchman.