blue-pencil
to alter, abridge, or cancel with or as with a pencil that has blue lead, as in editing a manuscript.
Origin of blue-pencil
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use blue-pencil in a sentence
Some editor blue-penciled these parts, perhaps, as fanciful little digressions.
The Crow's Nest | Clarence Day, Jr.Then he took down the red and blue penciled handkerchief and he and Laddie took possession of the fort.
Six Little Bunkers at Cousin Tom's | Laura Lee HopeThe letter had evidently been smuggled past the censor, for it contained much which Mrs. Fosdick would have blue-penciled.
The Portygee | Joseph Crosby LincolnThe King held his breath as the blue-penciled passage drew near.
King John of Jingalo | Laurence HousmanI have seen the original letter, and the unfavorable part of it was blue-penciled.
The Great American Fraud | Samuel Hopkins Adams
British Dictionary definitions for blue pencil
deletion, alteration, or censorship of the contents of a book or other work
(tr) to alter or delete parts of (a book, film, etc), esp to censor
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Browse