Dictionary

blue light en · NOUN

Meanings

1. (countable, historical, uncountable) A mixture of chemicals (including nitre, sulfur and antimony) used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for night-time signaling and general illumination.
   • Blue lights, or blue fire, is a preparation in which zinc and sulphur, or sulphur alone, are used. The particular colour is communicated by the zinc and sulphur. 1828, Samuel Frederick Gray, The Operative Chemist, page 499:
   • When the 'Canandaigua' got astern, and was lying athwart, of the 'Housatonic,' about four ship lengths off, while I was in the fore rigging, I saw a blue light on the water just ahead of the 'Canandaigua,' and on the starboard quarter of the 'Housatonic.' 2015, Mark K. Ragan, quoting Robert Fleming, Proceedings of a Naval Court of Inquiry into the Sinking of the Housatonic, 1864, quoted in Confederate Saboteurs, Texas A&M University Press, →ISBN, page 98:
   • The blue-light, which, at its first flashing over the ocean, had made the very stars pale their lustre, and lighted up with ghastly radiance the enormous vault of heaven, was now only a point […]. 1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of his Natural Life, Penguin, published 2009, page 57:
2. (US, colloquial, countable, historical, uncountable) A New England federalist, who opposed the Anglo-American War of 1812; (loosely), a federalist.
   • The “Blue-Light Elder” knows ’em well; / Says he, “That’s Banks — he’s fond of shell; / Lord save his soul! We’ll give him” — well, / that’s “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.” 1862, John Williamson Palmer, Stonewall Jackson's Way
3. (countable) A flashing light, usually fitted to an emergency vehicle.
   • Blue-light escorts were provided where possible to get engineers to the stranded GTR trains to reset the software. 2019 October, Roger Ford, “Power failure highlights specification confusion”, in Modern Railways, page 26:
4. (countable, uncountable) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see blue, light.

Forms

Deriveds

blue light bandit

Hypernyms

light

Synonyms

lightbar (flashing lights) · cherry light (flashing lights) · Bengal fire (chemicals) · Bengal light (chemicals)

Translations (7)

nn blålys (flashing light on emergency vehicle) · fi hälytysvalo (flashing light on emergency vehicle) · hu kék fény (flashing light on emergency vehicle) · ar ضَوْء أَزْرَق (flashing light on emergency vehicle) · de Blaulicht (flashing light on emergency vehicle) · nb blålys (flashing light on emergency vehicle) · nn blåljos (flashing light on emergency vehicle)

blue light en · VERB

Meanings

1. (informal, intransitive) To travel quickly in a police or ambulance vehicle with the lightbar (and possibly the siren) activated.
   • Roger that. Feds and green army are blue lighting to you. 2014, James Rennie, The Operators, Pen and Sword, →ISBN:
   • They jumped into his cruiser and blue-lighted it to Boston Medical Center at eighty miles per hour. 2012, Jon Mukand, The Man with the Bionic Brain, Chicago Review Press, →ISBN:
   • When we weren't blue lighting, we had to obey the 30 mph limit, but out of town we had a training exemption from any speed regulations and were encouraged to push the car to its limits... and we did. 2011, John Donoghue, Police, Crime & 999, Troubador Publishing, →ISBN:

Forms

Hypernyms

move quickly