1.
[syn: aristocrat, blue blood, patrician]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Blood \Blood\ (bl[u^]d), n. [OE. blod, blood, AS. bl[=o]d; akin
to D. bloed, OHG. bluot, G. blut, Goth. bl[=o][thorn], Icel.
bl[=o][eth], Sw. & Dan. blod; prob. fr. the same root as E.
blow to bloom. See Blow to bloom.]
1. The fluid which circulates in the principal vascular
system of animals, carrying nourishment to all parts of
the body, and bringing away waste products to be excreted.
See under Arterial.
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Note: The blood consists of a liquid, the plasma, containing
minute particles, the blood corpuscles. In the
invertebrate animals it is usually nearly colorless,
and contains only one kind of corpuscles; but in all
vertebrates, except Amphioxus, it contains some
colorless corpuscles, with many more which are red and
give the blood its uniformly red color. See
Corpuscle, Plasma.
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2. Relationship by descent from a common ancestor;
consanguinity; kinship.
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To share the blood of Saxon royalty. --Sir W.
Scott.
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A friend of our own blood. --Waller.
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Half blood (Law), relationship through only one parent.
Whole blood, relationship through both father and mother.
In American Law, blood includes both half blood, and whole
blood. --Bouvier. --Peters.
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3. Descent; lineage; especially, honorable birth; the highest
royal lineage.
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Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam. --Shak.
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I am a gentleman of blood and breeding. --Shak.
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4. (Stock Breeding) Descent from parents of recognized breed;
excellence or purity of breed.
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Note: In stock breeding half blood is descent showing one
half only of pure breed. Blue blood, full blood, or
warm blood, is the same as blood.
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5. The fleshy nature of man.
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Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood. --Shak.
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6. The shedding of blood; the taking of life, murder;
manslaughter; destruction.
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So wills the fierce, avenging sprite,
Till blood for blood atones. --Hood.
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7. A bloodthirsty or murderous disposition. [R.]
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He was a thing of blood, whose every motion
Was timed with dying cries. --Shak.
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8. Temper of mind; disposition; state of the passions; -- as
if the blood were the seat of emotions.
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When you perceive his blood inclined to mirth.
--Shak.
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Note: Often, in this sense, accompanied with bad, cold, warm,
or other qualifying word. Thus, to commit an act in
cold blood, is to do it deliberately, and without
sudden passion; to do it in bad blood, is to do it in
anger. Warm blood denotes a temper inflamed or
irritated. To warm or heat the blood is to excite the
passions. Qualified by up, excited feeling or passion
is signified; as, my blood was up.
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9. A man of fire or spirit; a fiery spark; a gay, showy man;
a rake.
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Seest thou not . . . how giddily 'a turns about all
the hot bloods between fourteen and five and thirty?
--Shak.
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It was the morning costume of a dandy or blood.
--Thackeray.
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10. The juice of anything, especially if red.
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He washed . . . his clothes in the blood of grapes.
--Gen. xiix.
11.
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Note: Blood is often used as an adjective, and as the first
part of self-explaining compound words; as,
blood-bespotted, blood-bought, blood-curdling,
blood-dyed, blood-red, blood-spilling, blood-stained,
blood-warm, blood-won.
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Blood baptism (Eccl. Hist.), the martyrdom of those who had
not been baptized. They were considered as baptized in
blood, and this was regarded as a full substitute for
literal baptism.
Blood blister, a blister or bleb containing blood or bloody
serum, usually caused by an injury.
Blood brother, brother by blood or birth.
Blood clam (Zool.), a bivalve mollusk of the genus Arca and
allied genera, esp. Argina pexata of the American coast.
So named from the color of its flesh.
Blood corpuscle. See Corpuscle.
Blood crystal (Physiol.), one of the crystals formed by the
separation in a crystalline form of the h[ae]moglobin of
the red blood corpuscles; h[ae]matocrystallin. All blood
does not yield blood crystals.
Blood heat, heat equal to the temperature of human blood,
or about 981/2 [deg] Fahr.
Blood horse, a horse whose blood or lineage is derived from
the purest and most highly prized origin or stock.
Blood money. See in the Vocabulary.
Blood orange, an orange with dark red pulp.
Blood poisoning (Med.), a morbid state of the blood caused
by the introduction of poisonous or infective matters from
without, or the absorption or retention of such as are
produced in the body itself; tox[ae]mia.
Blood pudding, a pudding made of blood and other materials.
Blood relation, one connected by blood or descent.
Blood spavin. See under Spavin.
Blood vessel. See in the Vocabulary.
Blue blood, the blood of noble or aristocratic families,
which, according to a Spanish prover, has in it a tinge of
blue; -- hence, a member of an old and aristocratic
family.
Flesh and blood.
(a) A blood relation, esp. a child.
(b) Human nature.
In blood (Hunting), in a state of perfect health and vigor.
--Shak.
To let blood. See under Let.
Prince of the blood, the son of a sovereign, or the issue
of a royal family. The sons, brothers, and uncles of the
sovereign are styled princes of the blood royal; and the
daughters, sisters, and aunts are princesses of the blood
royal.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Blue \Blue\ (bl[=u]), a. [Compar. Bluer (bl[=u]"[~e]r);
superl. Bluest.] [OE. bla, blo, blew, blue, livid, black,
fr. Icel.bl[=a]r livid; akin to Dan. blaa blue, Sw. bl[*a],
D. blauw, OHG. bl[=a]o, G. blau; but influenced in form by F.
bleu, from OHG. bl[=a]o.]
1. Having the color of the clear sky, or a hue resembling it,
whether lighter or darker; as, the deep, blue sea; as blue
as a sapphire; blue violets. "The blue firmament."
--Milton.
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2. Pale, without redness or glare, -- said of a flame; hence,
of the color of burning brimstone, betokening the presence
of ghosts or devils; as, the candle burns blue; the air
was blue with oaths.
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3. Low in spirits; melancholy; as, to feel blue.
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4. Suited to produce low spirits; gloomy in prospect; as,
thongs looked blue. [Colloq.]
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5. Severe or over strict in morals; gloom; as, blue and sour
religionists; suiting one who is over strict in morals;
inculcating an impracticable, severe, or gloomy mortality;
as, blue laws.
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6. Literary; -- applied to women; -- an abbreviation of
bluestocking. [Colloq.]
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The ladies were very blue and well informed.
--Thackeray.
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Blue asbestus. See Crocidolite.
Blue black, of, or having, a very dark blue color, almost
black.
Blue blood. See under Blood.
Blue buck (Zool.), a small South African antelope
(Cephalophus pygm[ae]us); also applied to a larger
species ([AE]goceras leucoph[ae]us); the blaubok.
Blue cod (Zool.), the buffalo cod.
Blue crab (Zool.), the common edible crab of the Atlantic
coast of the United States (Callinectes hastatus).
Blue curls (Bot.), a common plant (Trichostema
dichotomum), resembling pennyroyal, and hence called also
bastard pennyroyal.
Blue devils, apparitions supposed to be seen by persons
suffering with delirium tremens; hence, very low
spirits. "Can Gumbo shut the hall door upon blue devils,
or lay them all in a red sea of claret?" --Thackeray.
Blue gage. See under Gage, a plum.
Blue gum, an Australian myrtaceous tree (Eucalyptus
globulus), of the loftiest proportions, now cultivated in
tropical and warm temperate regions for its timber, and as
a protection against malaria. The essential oil is
beginning to be used in medicine. The timber is very
useful. See Eucalyptus.
Blue jack, Blue stone, blue vitriol; sulphate of copper.
Blue jacket, a man-of war's man; a sailor wearing a naval
uniform.
Blue jaundice. See under Jaundice.
Blue laws, a name first used in the eighteenth century to
describe certain supposititious laws of extreme rigor
reported to have been enacted in New Haven; hence, any
puritanical laws. [U. S.]
Blue light, a composition which burns with a brilliant blue
flame; -- used in pyrotechnics and as a night signal at
sea, and in military operations.
Blue mantle (Her.), one of the four pursuivants of the
English college of arms; -- so called from the color of
his official robes.
Blue mass, a preparation of mercury from which is formed
the blue pill. --McElrath.
Blue mold or Blue mould, the blue fungus (Aspergillus
glaucus) which grows on cheese. --Brande & C.
Blue Monday,
(a) a Monday following a Sunday of dissipation, or itself
given to dissipation (as the Monday before Lent).
(b) a Monday considered as depressing because it is a
workday in contrast to the relaxation of the weekend.
Blue ointment (Med.), mercurial ointment.
Blue Peter (British Marine), a blue flag with a white
square in the center, used as a signal for sailing, to
recall boats, etc. It is a corruption of blue repeater,
one of the British signal flags.
Blue pill. (Med.)
(a) A pill of prepared mercury, used as an aperient, etc.
(b) Blue mass.
Blue ribbon.
(a) The ribbon worn by members of the order of the Garter;
-- hence, a member of that order.
(b) Anything the attainment of which is an object of great
ambition; a distinction; a prize. "These
[scholarships] were the --blue ribbon of the college."
--Farrar.
(c) The distinctive badge of certain temperance or total
abstinence organizations, as of the --Blue ribbon
Army.
Blue ruin, utter ruin; also, gin. [Eng. Slang] --Carlyle.
Blue spar (Min.), azure spar; lazulite. See Lazulite.
Blue thrush (Zool.), a European and Asiatic thrush
(Petrocossyphus cyaneas).
Blue verditer. See Verditer.
Blue vitriol (Chem.), sulphate of copper, a violet blue
crystallized salt, used in electric batteries, calico
printing, etc.
Blue water, the open ocean.
Big Blue, the International Business Machines corporation.
[Wall Street slang.] PJC
To look blue, to look disheartened or dejected.
True blue, genuine and thorough; not modified, nor mixed;
not spurious; specifically, of uncompromising
Presbyterianism, blue being the color adopted by the
Covenanters.
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For his religion . . .
'T was Presbyterian, true blue. --Hudibras.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Blue blood \Blue blood\ (bl[=u]"bl[u^]d`), n.
1. a member of the nobility or aristocracy, or a person of
high social status.
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2. the quality of status that qualifies one as a blue
blood; -- used metaphorically, as "They have blue blood
in their veins.".
-- Blue"-blood`ed, adj.
[PJC]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
blue blood
n 1: a member of the aristocracy [syn: aristocrat, blue
blood, patrician]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
60 Moby Thesaurus words for "blue blood":
Brahman, ancestry, archduke, aristocracy, aristocrat,
aristocraticalness, armiger, baron, baronet, birth, blood, carnage,
count, daimio, distinction, duke, earl, elite, esquire, flower,
genteelness, gentility, gentleman, gentry, grand duke, grandee,
hidalgo, honorable descent, lace-curtain, laird, landgrave, lord,
lordling, magnate, magnifico, margrave, marquis, nobility, noble,
noble birth, nobleman, nobleness, optimate, palsgrave, patrician,
peer, quality, rank, royalty, seigneur, seignior, silk-stocking,
society, squire, swell, thoroughbred, upper class, upper-cruster,
viscount, waldgrave