Word.ws English Dictionary

blue-collar

blue-collar adjective: working class; engaged or trained in essentially manual labor.

Adjective

blue-collar (comparative more blue-collar, superlative most blue-collar)

  1. Working class; engaged or trained in essentially manual labor.
    • Blue-collar workers represent a diminishing segment of society.
    • The blue-collar, vulnerable McClane of Die Hard wouldn’t even recognize the bulletproof, catchphrase-spouting superhero he’s become in the sequels.2013 February 14, Scott Tobias, “Film: Reviews: A Good Day To Die Hard”, in The Onion AV Club, archived from the original on 29 Mar 2013
  2. Pertaining to the culture of blue-collar workers.
    • Even as a tenured professor, she remained proud of her blue-collar values.

Noun

blue-collar (plural blue-collars)

  1. A blue-collar worker.
    • In ways, these people defined what it was to be a really good lesbian or a really good dyke. For example: You needed to be articulate or aggressive […] You either needed to be a university or community college person, or a real sincere and hardworking blue collar. If you were from one of the...1983, Susan Krieger, The Mirror Dance: Identity in a Women's Community, page 14

blue-collar meaning in Tamil and Indonesian

blue-collar in Tamil

கைவினை செய்யும், தொழிலாளர் இன, பாட்டாளி வர்க்க

blue-collar in Indonesian

working class
kerah biru
pertaining to the culture of blue-collar workers
kerah biru

Forms of blue-collar

Adjective
comparativemore blue-collar
superlativemost blue-collar
alternative formbluecollar
alternative formblue collar
Noun
pluralblue-collars

Origin of blue-collar

From blue + collar. From the color of rugged denim and chambray work shirts often worn by manual workers, as opposed to the white dress shirts typically worn by professionals and clerical workers.

Phrases with blue-collar

Questions about blue-collar

What does blue-collar mean?
Blue-collar means working class; engaged or trained in essentially manual labor.
What is blue-collar in Tamil?
Blue-collar in Tamil is கைவினை செய்யும், தொழிலாளர் இன, பாட்டாளி வர்க்க. See Blue-collar meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is blue-collar?
Blue-collar can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near blue-collar in the dictionary

  1. blue-cheeked bee-eaters
  2. blue-chinned
  3. blue-chip
  4. blue-chipper
  5. blue-chippers
  6. blue-collar
  7. blue-collar work
  8. blue-collar worker
  9. blue-collar workers
  10. blue-collared
  11. blue-ear disease

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: blue-collar (page history and authors); blue-collar (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-blue-collar.wav.

Cite this entry: “blue-collar.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blue-collar. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.