Turkey blue

Turkey blue noun: a deep blue obtained by careful application of indigo dye to silk.

Noun

Turkey blue (countable and uncountable, plural Turkey blues)

(obsolete) A deep blue obtained by careful application of indigo dye to silk.
- Silk is dyed blue with indigo alone, without any proportion of woad... with ſix pounds of bran, and about twelve ounces of madder... half a pound of madder for each pound of potaſh, renders the vat greener, and produces a more fixed colour in the ſilk... it is wrung out, and expoſed to the air...1810, "Dyeing", Encyclopaedia Britannica, 4th ed., Vol. VII, §§300–302
- The blues are divided by dyers into five, light blue, sky blue, middle blue, king's blue, Turkey blue. The two last require a previous ground of archil.1815, Thomas Cooper, Practical Treatise on Dyeing and Callicoe Printing..., page 252
(obsolete) An item dyed Turkey blue.
- The bales for the Tunis market should be assorted as under... 9 pieces Turkey blues [per] 50 pieces...1818, C.W. Rőrdansz, European Commerce..., page 683

Turkey blue (comparative more Turkey blue, superlative most Turkey blue)

From the manner of preparing indigo practiced in the Ottoman Empire ("Turkey"). Doublet of turquoise blue.

What does Turkey blue mean?: Turkey blue means a deep blue obtained by careful application of indigo dye to silk.
What part of speech is Turkey blue?: Turkey blue can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of Turkey blue?: The plural of Turkey blue is Turkey blues.

Adapted from Wiktionary: Turkey blue (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: 2026-09-02

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