azure

plural azures · alternative az. · alternative b. · alternative bl.

1. countableuncountableThe clear blue colour of the sky; also, a pigment or dye of this colour.

   In robes of azure.

   1815, William Wordsworth, Extracts from An Evening Walk

   1 more example

   For our blues we have the azures and ceruleans, lapis lazulis, the light and dusty, the powder blues, the deeps: royal, sapphire, navy, and marine […]

   2014, William H. Gass, On Being Blue: A Philosophical Inquiry, page 59

2. countableuncountablegovernmentA blue colour on a coat of arms, represented in engraving by horizontal parallel lines.

   In Bb [Glover's Roll], the conventional letter B is used to indicate azure in most items.

   1997, Brault, Early Blazon

   2 more examples

   Berington of Chester (on the authority of Harleian manuscript No. 1535) is said to bear a plain shield of azure. Personally I doubt this coat of arms […]

   1904, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, The Art of Heraldry: An Encyclopaedia of Armory, London : T.C.; & E.C. Jack, page 41

   Sir Henry "Hotspur" Percy: before 1399: or, a lion rampant azure, differentiated with a label gules (a blue lion rampant on a field of gold, differentiated with a red label signifying the first-born son) […]

   2010, E. Baumgaertner Wm E. Baumgaertner, Wm E. Baumgaertner, Squires, Knights, Barons, Kings: War and Politics in Fifteenth Century England, Trafford Publishing, →ISBN

3. countablepoeticuncountableThe unclouded sky; the blue vault above.

   Not like those steps / On heaven's azure.

   1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

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   Not a single cloud mars the flawless azure; / Not a shadow moves o'er the moveless crops; [...]

   1889, Mathilde Blind, “[Poems of the Open Air.] Reapers.”, in The Ascent of Man, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 140

4. countableuncountableAny of various widely distributed lycaenid butterflies of the genus Celastrina.
5. countableuncountableAny of various Australasian lycaenid butterflies of the genus Ogyris.
6. countableuncountableLapis lazuli.

1. not comparableSky blue; resembling the clear blue colour of the unclouded sky.

   When Britain first, at Heaven's command / Arose from out the azure main.

   1740, James Thomson, Rule, Britannia!

   Synonyms: cerulean

2. not comparableCloudless.
3. not comparablegovernmentIn blazon, of the colour blue.

   On the fesse are two bars wavy azure for waterways.

   1957 February 28, “B.T.C. Armorial Bearings”, in Railway Magazine, page 81

   1 more example

   ‘I forget your coat of arms.’ ‘A human foot d’or, in a field azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel.’

   1846, Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado

present singular third person azures · participle present azuring · participle past azured · past azured

1. transitiveTo colour blue.

   Our readers are aware that much of the sugar sold in many countries goes through an azuring treatment; blue is added to granulated sugar with the view of making it appear whiter than it actually is.

   1907, The Sugar Beet, volume 28, page 271

plural Azures

1. A surname.