bluebottles

Noun

bluebottle (plural bluebottles)

1. A cornflower, a plant that grows in grain fields, Centaurea cyanus.
2. Any of various blowflies of the genus Calliphora that have an iridescent metallic-blue body and make a loud buzzing noise when flying.
   • The flies that troubled me most were a large kind of blue-bottle or blow-fly. These settled in swarms on my bird skins when first put out to dry, filling their plumage with masses of eggs, which, if neglected, the next day produced maggots.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 329
3. A blue ant, Diamma bicolor, a parasitic wasp native to Australia.
4. Any of various large papilionid butterflies of the genus Graphium, also called triangles, etc.
5. (Australia, Ireland, UK, derogatory, slang) A police officer.
   • I will have you as soundly swing’d for this, you bluebottle rogue!c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
6. (derogatory, obsolete) A bluestocking.
   • To-morrow there is a party of purple at the “blue” Miss Berry’s. Shall I go? um! — I don’t much affect your blue-bottles ; — but one ought to be civil.1813, Lord G. G. Byron, edited by Rowland E. Prothero, The Works Of Lord Byron Letters And Journals Vol II, page 358

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