Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A moderate to pale blue or purplish blue.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A very pale blue colour.
  • adjective Of a very pale blue colour.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a pale blue color with grey in it
  • adjective of a moderate to pale blue or purplish blue

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From the color of powdered smalt.]

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Examples

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Comments

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  • Powder blue may refer to two different colors. Originally, it referred to a dark blue color, but it has since come to refer to a pale blue color (perhaps resulting from confusion over the word's origin), possibly because the name reminded people of baby powder and so people thought of it as a color similar to baby blue. The original color is now called dark powder blue.

    _Wikipedia

    February 11, 2008

  • Can you imagine? In 1962 my mother bought me a pair of powder blue patent leather flats to wear for Easter, along with a powder blue dress and a skimmer

    with a powder blue ribbon hatband and streamers.

    February 11, 2008

  • That's a lot of powder.

    August 13, 2008