Contextualizebeta

bluebottle

noun

Etymology

From blue + bottle, after the resemblance to shiny colored-glass bottles. In sense 3 (“cornflower”), via Middle English blewbothel. Sense 6 (“police officer”) is in reference to the colour of the uniform.

  1. inherited from blewbothel

Definitions

  1. Any of various blowflies of the genus Calliphora that have an iridescent metallic-blue…

    Any of various blowflies of the genus Calliphora that have an iridescent metallic-blue body and make a loud buzzing noise when flying.

    • The incredibly long body as well as the extended wings were of a gleaming purplish-gray colour: I can only liken it to that of a meat fly or common "bluebottle".

  2. A marine jellyfish of the genus Physalia, which includes Physalia physalis, the…

    A marine jellyfish of the genus Physalia, which includes Physalia physalis, the Portuguese man-of-war, and Physalia utriculus, the Pacific man-of-war; a man-of-war.

  3. A cornflower, a plant that grows in grain fields, Centaurea cyanus, with blue flowers…

    A cornflower, a plant that grows in grain fields, Centaurea cyanus, with blue flowers resembling bottles.

  4. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. A blue ant, Diamma bicolor, a parasitic wasp native to Australia.

    2. Any of various large papilionid butterflies of the genus Graphium, also called triangles,…

      Any of various large papilionid butterflies of the genus Graphium, also called triangles, etc.

    3. A police officer.

      • I will have you as soundly swing’d for this, you bluebottle rogue!
      • […] comic writers […] have never failed to make capital out of the New Police, Peel's Raw-Lobsters, Peelers, Blue Bottles, &c., &c.
      • COOMBE: He got the clinch only last week — eighteen months. You see it's no good having anybody here as ain't got a^([sic]) unblemished character. We don't want to have the bluebottles come sniffing round here, do we?

    4. A bluestocking.

      • To-morrow there is a party of purple at the “blue” Miss Berry’s. Shall I go? um! — I don’t much affect your blue-bottles ; — but one ought to be civil.
      • There appears to be a growing disposition on the part of the literary and dramatic blue-bottles of this city to get up a national drama and to manufacture a new race of actors.
      • ..and did not the rich dowager-countess Bluebottle marry her footman, who forthwith became a lord and was made a privy counsellor.

The neighborhood

Derived

blue-bottle fly

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for bluebottle. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA