Word.ws English Dictionary

blue laws

blue laws is the plural of blue law.

Meaning of blue law

Noun

blue law (plural blue laws)

  1. (Canada, US, historical) A restrictive religious-based law in colonial New England, especially preventing leisure activities on a Sunday.
    • Years ago, because of the Blue Laws, we couldn't serve drinks on Sunday over the bar, so we set up tables in the aisles. And we'd have different acts on a stage up front.1976 February 7, Rose Flower, quoting Jimmy McGrath, “Playland: The Friendliest Place In Town”, in Gay Community News, volume 3, number 32, page 13
  2. (Canada, US, broadly) Any puritanical or restrictive law, especially one that prohibits or restricts commercial activity on a Sunday.
    • [I]t's actually a way around the Swiss blue laws demanding that shops close from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning. The laws apply everywhere but the airport, so they built a massive supermarket in the Swiss Air terminal.2001, David Sedaris, diary entry January 22, in Theft by Finding, Back Bay Books 2017, p. 441

Questions about blue laws

What is blue laws the plural of?
Blue laws is the plural of blue law.

Words near blue laws in the dictionary

  1. Blue Labour
  2. Blue Lagoon
  3. Blue Lagoons
  4. Blue Lake
  5. blue law
  6. blue laws
  7. blue lead
  8. blue lie
  9. blue lies
  10. blue light
  11. blue light bandit

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: blue laws (page history and authors); blue law (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.

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