iron blue

noun

1. any of the class of blue pigments having a high tinting strength and ranging in shade and in coloring properties from reddish blue to jet blue: used chiefly in the manufacture of paints and printing inks.

Word History and Origins

Origin of iron blue¹

First recorded in 1690–1700

Example Sentences

That iron blue grip could be loosening this year, as Democrat Tina Kotek fights two candidates backed by billionaire Nike co-founder Phil Knight.

From Slate

Vitriol, vit′ri-ol, n. the popular name of sulphuric acid: a soluble sulphate of a metal—green vitriol=sulphate of iron, blue vitriol=sulphate of copper, white vitriol=sulphate of zinc.—v.t.

From Project Gutenberg

The Little Iron Blue.—The body is made of a little light coloured water-rat's fur mixed with a few hairs of yellow, an iron blue coloured dun hackle for legs, and the wings from a blue dun feather to be found underneath the wing of a dun hen, or starling wing feather, tail it with a dun hackle, two fibres.

From Project Gutenberg

Make the iron "blue hot," and it pours out, in addition to light, the invisible waves which alter the film on the photographic plate.

From Project Gutenberg

As the last trailing fingers of the golden clouds die before the approaching army of the stars, as the yellow above the horizon gives way to a cold and iron blue, lights come out in that house with the green door and the white stone steps—No. 72, Cheyne Walk—that is now Peter Westcott's home.

From Project Gutenberg