Meanings
- collectivecolloquialThe police.
Crime wave overwhelms thin blue line [title]
2005 March 27, Tony Thompson, Martin Bright, “Crime wave overwhelms thin blue line”, in The Observer, →ISSN1 more example
It followed dire warnings from the police staff associations that the possible loss of up to 40,000 police jobs would mean “Christmas coming early” for criminals, and the “thin blue line” left too stretched to cope with the inevitable risk of social and industrial unrest.
2010 October 13, Alan Travis, “The thinner blue line – police warning over 25% budget cut”, in The Guardian, →ISSN - A flag or symbol representing the police, commonly associated with the blue lives matter movement.
“Obviously, you’ve seen caravans with the Trump flag in the back of pickup trucks and then the thin blue line,” Mr. DeMasi, a former police officer, said. “I think maybe people had a good intention, but it ended up giving the meaning of the thin blue line a black eye.”
2020 November 21, Michael Gold, “What Happened When a School District Banned Thin Blue Line Flags”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
By analogy with Thin Red Line. “Blue” refers to the color of the uniforms of many police departments.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
thin blue line. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thin%20blue%20line
“thin blue line.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thin%20blue%20line. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “thin blue line,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thin%20blue%20line.
Source: thin blue line on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.