blue light
English
Blue light, a pyrotechnic signal.
Blue light on a police vehicle.
Noun
blue light (countable and uncountable, plural blue lights)
- Visible light towards the blue end of the spectrum generated from the screen of an electronic device.
- (historical, uncountable) A mixture of chemicals (including nitre, sulfur and antimony) used in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for pyrotechnics, night-time signaling and general illumination.
- 1828, Gray, Samuel Frederick, The Operative Chemist, page 499:
- 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.
- 2015, Ragan, Mark K., 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:
- 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.'
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- (historical, figuratively) Someone or something that physically resembles the illuminating bright glow and/or displays a zeal figuratively reminiscent of the ardent burning intensity of the pyrotechnic light signal used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
- 1862, John Williamson Palmer, Stonewall Jackson's Way :
- Come, stack arms, Men! Pile on the rails; stir up the campfire bright; no matter if the canteen fails, we'll make a roaring night. Here Shenandoah brawls along, there burly Blue Ridge echoes strong, to swell the Brigade's rousing song, of “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.”
We see him now — the old slouched hat cocked o’er his eye askew, the shrewd, dry smile, the speech so pat, so calm, so blunt, so true. 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.”
Silence! Ground arms! Kneel all! Caps off! Old Blue Light’s going to pray. Strangle the fool that dares to scoff: Attention! 'Tis his way. Appealing from his native sod in forma pauperis to God: “Lay bare thine arm, stretch forth thy rod! Amen!” That’s “Stonewall’s Way.”
He’s in the saddle now. Fall in! Steady, the whole brigade! Hill’s at the ford, cut off — we’ll win his way out, ball and blade! What matter if our shoes are worn? What matter if our feet are torn? “Quick step! We’re with him before the morn!” That’s “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.”
The sun’s bright lances rout the mists of morning, and by George! Here’s Longstreet struggling in the lists, hemmed in an ugly gorge. Pope and his Yankees, whipped before, “Bay’nets and grape!” hear Stonewall roar; “Charge, Stuart! Pay off Ashby’s score!” in “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.”
Ah! Maiden, wait and watch and yearn for news of Stonewall’s band! Ah! Widow read with eyes that burn that ring upon thy hand. Ah! Wife, sew on, pray on, hope on! Thy life shall not be all forlorn. The foe had better ne’er been born that gets in “Stonewall’s Way.”
- Come, stack arms, Men! Pile on the rails; stir up the campfire bright; no matter if the canteen fails, we'll make a roaring night. Here Shenandoah brawls along, there burly Blue Ridge echoes strong, to swell the Brigade's rousing song, of “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.”
- (countable) A flashing light, usually fitted to an emergency vehicle.
- 2019 October, Roger Ford, “Power failure highlights specification confusion”, in Modern Railways, page 26:
- Until these trains could be restarted, they blocked lines out of Farringdon and King's Cross, trapping other services. Blue-light escorts were provided where possible to get engineers to the stranded GTR trains to reset the software.
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- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see blue, light.
Usage notes
The original chemical mixtures burned with a blue flame. Later versions omitted any colouring agents, producing a bright white light, but retained the name by convention.
Synonyms
- (chemicals): Bengal fire, Bengal light
- (flashing lights): cherry light, lightbar
Hypernyms
- light
Derived terms
- blue light bandit
Translations
visible light towards the blue end of the spectrum generated from the screen of an electronic device
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flashing light on emergency vehicle
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References
Blue light (pyrotechnic signal) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia - Emergency vehicle lighting on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Verb
blue light (third-person singular simple present blue lights, present participle blue lighting, simple past and past participle blue lighted)
- To travel quickly in a police or ambulance vehicle with the lightbar (and possibly the siren) activated.
- 2011, Donoghue, John, Police, Crime & 999, Troubador Publishing, →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.
- 2012, Mukand, Jon, The Man with the Bionic Brain, Chicago Review Press, →ISBN:
- They jumped into his cruiser and blue-lighted it to Boston Medical Center at eighty miles per hour.
- 2014, Rennie, James, The Operators, Pen and Sword, →ISBN:
- Roger that. Feds and green army are blue lighting to you.
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Hypernyms
- See Thesaurus:move quickly
References
- “blue light”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Anagrams
- light blue