Blue-collar

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A blue-collar worker.

    "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."

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

    "Blue-collar workers represent a diminishing segment of society."

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

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

Adjective
  1. 1
    of those who work for wages especially manual or industrial laborers wordnet
  2. 2
    of or designating manual industrial work or workers wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
hardhandedpropertylesswage-earningworking-class

Example

More examples

"Why are, depending on the company, blue-collar workers better paid than white-collar ones?"

Etymology

From blue + collar. From the color of rugged denim and chambray work shirts often worn by manual workers, as opposed to the white dress shirts typically worn by professionals and clerical workers.

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