blueing

Pluralblueings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A blue substance added to laundry water to keep white fabrics from yellowing.

   She measured a capful of blueing into the rinse to brighten the tablecloths.

   Without a touch of blueing, the old cotton shirts gradually took on a dull yellow cast.

   Similarblue

   Note

   A laundry staple that works both as a mass noun and as a countable one. Usually it is uncounted: a capful of blueing, a touch of blueing. It also takes a plural, blueings, for more than one preparation. Plain blue names the same substance, so the two words are interchangeable here. The noun names the liquid itself, while the verb form names the act of applying it.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of blue.

   He spent the morning blueing the gun barrels in the workshop.

   The laundress was blueing the linens before pinning them to the line.

   Note

   One form carries every verb sense of blue, so context decides which is meant. In a workshop it is the metalworker's treatment that makes steel resist rust. In a laundry it is brightening linen with blue. In Australian slang, men blueing are brawling or arguing, and in dated slang it meant blowing money. The spelling keeps the e of blue before -ing.

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