blue watern.
/ˌbluː ˈwɔːtə/, U.S. /ˌblu ˈwɑdər/, /ˌblu ˈwɔdər/ 1. Water to which bluing has been added, to be used for rinsing white laundry. Now rare.In early use: cf. florey n.
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a1400 in D. W. Singer Catal. Lat. & Vernacular Alchemical MSS (1931) II. 605 (MED) For to make blew water. Recipe clene floryes [etc.].
?a1500 in G. Henslow Med. Wks. 14th Cent. (1899) 4 (MED) To make bleu water. Take clene floreye [etc.].
1726 Great Number Nobility & Gentry (Hon. Soc. Improvers Knowl. Agric. Scotl.) 30 You will generally find, that the Blue will settle in some Parts of your Cloth more than in others; in which Case, you must, with a clean Cloth wet with your blue Water, rub Such Part thereof, until you bring it down to the Colour it ought to have.
1760 H. Glasse Servant's Directory 9 Rinse them in good blue Water.
1835 Ann Connover (Amer. Sunday-School Union) vi. 90 She put it in water, and boiled the starch, and was getting the blue water ready.
1882 M. Black Househ. Cookery & Laundry Work 130 Never allow clothes to lie in blue water, or put more than one in at a time.
1921 Maternity & Child Welfare 5 163/1 If it is white a very little blue water may be used in the preparation of the fourth bowl.
2. A blue solution containing a copper compound (esp. copper sulphate), resulting from contamination or corrosion or (esp. formerly) prepared for medicinal or other purposes. Now rare. Cf. green water n. 1.
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the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > medicines of specific form > solution > [noun] > specific solutions
blue water1596
saline solution1833
Lugol's iodine1880
Tyrode1923
saline1926
1596 P. Lowe Easie Method to cure Spanish Sicknes ii. ii. sig. E2v In the beginning vse such as haue the force to dull the arcimonie of the humor, like as to touch it with water of Sublimat, or strong water, or the blew water, which is commonly vsed, or pouder of Mercury.
1655 Natura Exenterata 50 To make a blue water, being excellent to root out, and rot away dead flesh in a sore leg.
1759 W. Osmer Treat. Dis. & Lameness Horses ii. i. 69 If the blue Water should not be sufficient to keep down the spongy Flesh, some Drops of Aqua Fortis may be added thereto.
1870 C. L. Bloxam Metals 128 Anglesea Copper or Cement Copper is extracted from the water which is pumped out of the Amlwch mine..and is called blue water, its colour being due to the presence of sulphate of copper.
1902 R. Dubois & W. P. Wilkinson tr. G. Foëx Man. Mod. Viticulture x. 179 Blue water has effectively protected vines treated with it, and has the advantage over the Bordeaux mixture in being more lasting.
1996 A. M. Fan in L. W. Chang Toxicol. Metals iii. 48 ‘Blue Water’ containing copper at 5 ppm or higher has been reported in several residential areas in California.
3.
a. Originally Nautical. The open sea. Chiefly in in blue water: on or in the open sea.
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the world > the earth > water > sea or ocean > [noun] > ocean, open sea, or deep sea
room seaeOE
seawaya1000
the deepc1000
deptha1382
oceana1387
mid-sea?a1425
profound?a1425
main seaa1530
high seas1566
main1579
main flood1596
the deep1598
deep sea1626
dipsey1626
mid-ocean1697
blue water1803
haaf1809
salt chuck1868
wide1916
1803 J. Davis Trav. U.S.A. x. 423 Should any man who has never been out of soundings, or never beheld blue water, repeat the offence,—I will strike the timber-head of his skull.
1834 F. Marryat Peter Simple II. ix. 133 When we once are fairly out of harbour, and find ourselves in blue water.
1855 M. F. Maury Physical Geogr. Sea xi. 200 Until the commencement of..deep-sea soundings,..the bottom of what the sailors call ‘blue water’ was as unknown to us as is the interior of any of the planets.
1927 Boys' Life May 10/1 Ocean Queen indeed; it was all the tottering old tub could do to keep afloat in the river without taking any chances in blue water.
1975 W. R. Stanton Great U.S. Exploring Exped. ix. 161 In blue water, sounding was a tricky operation.
2006 F. Prokop Austral. Fish Guide (ed. 3) 242 Black marlin are most commonly found in blue water, with many fish moving southwards with the warmer currents.
b. Oceanography. Nutrient-poor seawater, typically of tropical regions or open seas, containing little phytoplankton. Cf. green water n. 3.
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1881 Science 19 Feb. 79/2 The blue waters indicated the presence of a small amount of suspended matter; the bright green a decidedly greater amount.
1928 Science 23 Nov. 518/1 The boat drifted so that it was directly on this line, with the blue water on one side, the green water on the other.
1975 Limnol. & Oceanogr. 20 1046/2 Danger and expense can be reduced by selecting a location where blue water comes in close to shore.
2005 T. Carlson Hatteras Blues xiii. 219 The blue water this time of year ran up to eighty degrees, while the green water a few feet away was fifteen to twenty degrees cooler.
4. Environmental Science. In water resource management: water contained in lakes, rivers, aquifers, etc.; cf. green water n. 4, white water n. 6.
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1995 Land & Water Integration & River Basin Managem. (U.N. Food & Agric. Organization) 6 Neither the integration of soil and local, ‘Green’ water (rainfall, and the water in and on the soil) as components of the land, nor the close relationships between the land and ‘Blue’ water (in rivers, lakes, irrigation networks, aquifers) are evident in all chapters of Agenda 21.
2000 Physics & Chem. of Earth B. 25 200/2 Depending on the climate, topography and geology, the ratio of groundwater recharge to total blue water varies.
2010 R. Stirzaker Out of Scientist's Garden i. 10 Blue water can be collected, stored and moved to any sector of the economy, or left for the environment.
Compounds
C1. General attributive, as blue water battle, blue water diving, blue water fishing, blue water navigation, blue water sailor, etc.
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1862 E. A. Duyckinck Nat. Portrait Gallery Eminent Americans 66 Home defence..exacted many a rebellious oath from the blue water sailors, condemned to rust in harbor.
1883 Harper's Mag. Aug. 445/1 There came a desire for blue-water cruising and for longer voyages.
1898 Daily News 29 Mar. 3/2 The blue water torpedo-boats.
1905 Daily Chron. 13 May 4/3 It is quite likely that no such blue-water battle..may take place.
1940 Maryland: Guide to Old Line State (Federal Writers' Project) i. 116 The course, a distance of approximately 475 miles, gives a fair taste of blue water sailing.
1974 Pop. Sci. Oct. 166/3 I believe the methods we're using..will be standard in blue-water fishing in a few years.
1989 P. O'Brian Thirteen-gun Salute i. 9 Some had originally come from blue-water privateers.
1992 Sci. Amer. Oct. 98/3 They had no sails nor blue-water navigation skills beyond expert pilotage.
2010 Observer 1 Aug. (Mag.) 44/1 A blue-water dive is extremely scary.
C2.
blue water school n. British (sometimes with capital initials) a collective term for politicians or political thinkers who regard a strong navy and the command of the sea as essential to the security of the country, or as the chief or the only sufficient defence.
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1899 Parl. Deb. 4th Ser. 73 205 This ‘blue water’ school would teach the people of this country that they need not bear any military burdens at all.
1902 Westm. Gaz. 13 Jan. 3/2 Mr. Roosevelt is revealed..as convinced a member of the blue-water school as Mr. Clowes in England.
1966 New Statesman 25 Feb. 247/1 The differences between the Powellites and the Blue Water school on China, Vietnam, Aden [etc.].
2002 S. Mahajan Brit. Foreign Policy iv. 93 The ‘Blue Water’ School..argued that the way to protect Britain and the empire lay in the command of the sea.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2013; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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