Word.ws English Dictionary

blue murder

blue murder noun: a loud protest or angry outburst.

Noun

blue murder (uncountable)

  1. (usually in phrases such as 'scream/howl/yell/shriek blue murder') A loud protest or angry outburst.
    • Here men would murder for five dollars, here men would seek divorce because their wives sighed at the handsomeness of the film star P. Ramlee, here the very night-roaming dogs screamed blue murder if another dog bit their little toe.1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 517
    • [I]t was her [Princess Charlotte of Prussia's] increasingly violent tantrums that caused her parents the greatest concern. Shortly before the child's second birthday we read, 'Ditta has such outbreaks of rage & stubbornness that she screams blue murder.'1998, John C[harles] G[erald] Röhl, translated by Jeremy Gaines and Rebecca Wallach, Young Wilhelm: The Kaiser's Early Life, 1859–1888, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 107
    Synonyms:
    bloody murder

Examples of blue murder in a sentence

  • The gearbox screams blue murder, but we're getting there, and the newspaper kid stops, turns on his BMX.2001, Gareth Creer, “Tripping to the Seaside, Double-quick”, in Big Sky, London: Doubleday, →ISBN:
  • He let out the most enormous yell and came hopping into the kitchen screaming blue murder about leaving such dangerous things lying around.2011, Jeff Smith, Polly: Memories of an East End Girl, Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, →ISBN:

Synonyms of blue murder

  • bloody murder

Origin of blue murder

From French morbleu (“gadzooks, zounds”, interjection) (archaic), from mort bleu (“blue death”), a minced oath of mort Dieu (“death of God”).

Questions about blue murder

What does blue murder mean?
Blue murder means a loud protest or angry outburst.
How do you use blue murder in a sentence?
The gearbox screams blue murder, but we're getting there, and the newspaper kid stops, turns on his BMX.
What part of speech is blue murder?
Blue murder is a noun.

Words near blue murder in the dictionary

  1. blue moons
  2. Blue Mountains
  3. Blue Mountains National Park
  4. blue movie
  5. blue movies
  6. blue murder
  7. blue mussel
  8. blue mussels
  9. Blue Nile
  10. Blue Nobby
  11. blue noise

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: blue murder (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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