noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A disease of ruminants, caused by Bluetongue virus of the genus Orbivirus, carried by mosquitos, midges etc. uncountable
2. 2
   a viral disease of sheep and cattle that is transmitted by biting midges wordnet
3. 3
   The blue-tongue lizard. Australia, countable

   "“I don't worry about snakes, blue-tongues, spiders. All I worry about is the mutton-bird.”"

4. 4
   Someone who is as sleepy as a lizard; a lazy person. Australia, New-Zealand, colloquial, countable

Synonyms

All synonyms

catarrhal fevercatarrhal feverdikkopmalarial catarrhal fever

Example

More examples

"“I don't worry about snakes, blue-tongues, spiders. All I worry about is the mutton-bird.”"

Etymology

From blue + tongue.

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