# blues

Pronunciation: say "BLOOZ" /bluːz/

## Noun

1. A musical form of African-American origin, typically built on an eight-bar or twelve-bar structure and using the blues scale.
   - Simple: A style of African-American music built on simple repeating chord patterns and a set of sad-sounding notes.
   - _He plays the blues with a slide guitar and a worn-out amplifier._
   - _Musicologists trace the blues back to the work songs and field hollers of the Deep South._
2. A state of feeling sad, gloomy, or depressed. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A down, gloomy mood that hangs over you for a while.
   - _He gets the blues every year around the holidays._
   - _Nothing shakes the blues like a long walk along the shore._
3. A piece of music composed according to blues forms.
   - Simple: A single song or piece written in the blues style.
   - _Her album opens with a mournful blues about leaving home._
   - _The pianist improvised a blues over the standard chord changes._
4. A mainly blue uniform, particularly one worn for full dress.
   - Simple: A uniform made mostly of blue cloth, especially a fancy dress one.
   - _He looked sharp in his blues at the formal review._
   - _She kept her blues immaculate for inspection day._
5. The sum of one's life experience, especially the hardships one has faced. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: The hard times and struggles a person has lived through.
   - _His music came straight out of his blues, every bit of it earned._
   - _You can hear a lifetime of blues in her voice._
6. A negative emotional state brought on by a particular activity, job, experience, or idea. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A low, sad feeling that comes from a certain thing, like a job or a time of year.
   - _Many graduates feel the blues once the excitement of the ceremony fades._
   - _The long deployment left him with a bad case of the blues._
7. Any of various blue street pills made to resemble prescription painkiller tablets. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Blue pills sold illegally on the street, made to look like prescription pain medicine.
   - _Police seized hundreds of blues in the overnight raid._
   - _Counterfeit blues circulating in the area turned out to contain fentanyl._
8. Plural of blue. — plural of blue
   - Simple: Plural of blue. Use this when talking about more than one shade of blue.
   - _The decorator compared several blues before settling on one for the walls._
   - _Cool blues dominate the upper half of the painting._

## Verb

9. Third-person singular simple present of blue. — third-person singular simple present indicative of blue
   - Simple: The form of blue used in the present with he, she, it, or a singular noun such as the dog or water.
   - _He blues the gun barrel using a chemical bath._
   - _The traditional process blues the metal to a deep, even finish._

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/blues (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).