blue-collar

comparative more blue-collar · superlative most blue-collar · alternative bluecollar · alternative blue collar

1. Working class; engaged or trained in essentially manual labor.

   Blue-collar workers represent a diminishing segment of society.

   2 more examples

   The blue-collar, vulnerable McClane of Die Hard wouldn’t even recognize the bulletproof, catchphrase-spouting superhero he’s become in the sequels.

   2013 February 14, Scott Tobias, “Film: Reviews: A Good Day To Die Hard”, in The Onion AV Club, archived from the original on 29 Mar 2013

   Bargaining on this scale led the way for the NUR's successes in negotiating with the Big Four after 1921, and subsequently British Rail. Privatisation has put paid to much of that, but railway workers are still arguably the most powerful blue-collar workforce in Britain today.

   2020 January 2, Conrad Landin, “Strife and strikes in post-war Britain”, in Rail, page 53

2. Pertaining to the culture of blue-collar workers.

   Even as a tenured professor, she remained proud of her blue-collar values.

plural blue-collars · alternative bluecollar · alternative blue collar

1. A blue-collar worker.

   1 more example

   In ways, these people defined what it was to be a really good lesbian or a really good dyke. For example: You needed to be articulate or aggressive […] You either needed to be a university or community college person, or a real sincere and hardworking blue collar. If you were from one of the outlying towns, you were likely to have a black mark against you in the first place.

   1983, Susan Krieger, The Mirror Dance: Identity in a Women's Community, page 14