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bluebottle

[ bloo-bot-l ]

noun

  1. a composite plant, Centaurea cyanus, having narrow leaves and blue flower heads.
  2. Australian. Portuguese man-of-war.


bluebottle

/ ˈbluːˌbɒtəl /

noun

  1. another name for the blowfly
  2. any of various blue-flowered plants, esp the cornflower
  3. an informal word for a policeman
  4. an informal name for Portuguese man-of-war
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Word History and Origins

Origin of bluebottle1

First recorded in 1545–55; blue + bottle 1
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Example Sentences

"It could also attract vermin into our houses as well as flies and bluebottles."

From BBC

An ugly bluebottle crept along his cheek before buzzing off.

I brushed at a bluebottle buzzing at my head.

My mother laughed at me one fateful beach day as she pulled a Pacific man o’ war jellyfish — known in Australia as a bluebottle — from my body as I screamed.

“Personally, I had always thought that a big, juicy, caught-in-the-web bluebottle was the finest dinner in the world—until I tasted this.”

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