Bluebeard

name, noun

name, noun ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A man who marries and then murders one wife after another.

    "Henry never lived down his reputation as a Bluebeard, and only a few years before his death sporting gentlemen in Antwerp were laying bets that the English Lothario would divorce and marry once again."

  2. 2
    Any of the genus Caryopteris of plants native to eastern Asia, now cultivated in gardens. countable, uncountable
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A famous fairy tale written by Charles Perrault in 1697 about a violent nobleman who has the habit of murdering his wives and the attempts of his current wife to avoid the same fate.
  2. 2
    The nobleman who is the title character of the story.

Synonyms

All synonyms
killer

Example

More examples

"Henry never lived down his reputation as a Bluebeard, and only a few years before his death sporting gentlemen in Antwerp were laying bets that the English Lothario would divorce and marry once again."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Calque of French Barbe-Bleue (literally “blue beard”).

Etymology 2

From blue + beard.

Related phrases

Mongolian bluebeardcommon bluebeardfairy taletitle character

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.