Word.ws English Dictionary

blue lies

blue lies is the plural of blue lie.

Meaning of blue lie

Noun

blue lie (plural blue lies)

  1. A lie told by a police officer in order to get someone to comply with his or her wishes, thereby avoiding the use of force.
    • Blue lies are different from police placebos in that they are not told to help or comfort the person lied to but, rather, to exert control1984 March, Carl B. B Klockars, “Blue lies and police placebos: The moralities of police lying”, in American Behavioral Scientist
  2. A lie told to protect the reputation of one's group or organization.
    • About Manete's evidence, that Francis had asked him why he did not join the people, why he did not fight, Francis said, "No, he is telling a blue lie."1990, Prakash Diar, The Sharpeville six, page 157

Questions about blue lies

What is blue lies the plural of?
Blue lies is the plural of blue lie.

Words near blue lies in the dictionary

  1. Blue Lake
  2. blue law
  3. blue laws
  4. blue lead
  5. blue lie
  6. blue lies
  7. blue light
  8. blue light bandit
  9. blue light bandits
  10. blue light disco
  11. blue light discos

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: blue lies (page history and authors); blue lie (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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