bluebottle
English edit
Etymology edit
- blue + bottle From resemblance to shiny colored-glass bottles.
- (police officer): From the colour of the uniform.
Pronunciation edit
Audio (AU) (file)
Noun edit
bluebottle (plural bluebottles)
- Any of various blowflies of the genus Calliphora that have an iridescent metallic-blue body and make a loud buzzing noise when flying.
- 1930, Sax Rohmer, The Day the World Ended, published 1969, page i. 16:
- 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".
- 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.
- A cornflower, a plant that grows in grain fields, Centaurea cyanus, with blue flowers resembling bottles.
- A blue ant, Diamma bicolor, a parasitic wasp native to Australia.
- Any of various large papilionid butterflies of the genus Graphium, also called triangles, etc.
- (UK, Australia, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A police officer.
- 1878, Charles Hindley, The life and times of James Catnach, page 206:
- […] comic writers […] have never failed to make capital out of the New Police, Peel's Raw-Lobsters, Peelers, Blue Bottles, &c., &c.
- 1882, Henry Herman, Henry Arthur Jones, The Silver King:
- COOMBE: He got the clinch only last week — eighteen months. You see it's no good having anybody here as ain't got a unblemished character. We don't want to have the bluebottles come sniffing round here, do we?
Hypernyms edit
Coordinate terms edit
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
blowfly of the genus Calliphora
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Portuguese man-of-war — see Portuguese man-of-war
cornflower — see cornflower
blue ant — see blue ant