| English > English |
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| out of the blue |
| 1. prep. unexpectedly; without warning or preparation |
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| After I hadn’t heard from her in six months, she called me out of the blue to meet for lunch. |
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| I really can't understand how something like this could simply pop up out of the blue. |
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| Analysis |
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| out |
| See also individual phrasal verbs such as come out, go out, put out, take out, pull out, and so on. |
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| 1. adv. Away from the inside or the centre. |
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| The magician pulled the rabbit out of the hat. |
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| 2. adv. Away from home or one's usual place. |
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| Let's eat out tonight |
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| of |
| 1. prep. Expressing distance or motion. |
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| 2. prep. (now obsolete, or dialectal) From (of distance, direction), "off". |
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| 3. prep. (obsolete except in phrases) Since, from (a given time, earlier state etc.). |
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| 4. prep. From, away from (a position, number, distance etc.). |
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| There are no shops within twenty miles of the cottage. |
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| the |
| 1. art. Definite grammatical article that implies necessarily that an entity it articulates is presupposed; something already mentioned, or completely specified later in that same sentence, or assumed already |
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| I’m reading the book. (Compare I’m reading a book.) |
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| The street in front of your house. (Compare A street in Paris.) |
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| The men and women watched the man give the birdseed to the bird. |
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| 2. art. Used before a noun modified by a restrictive relative clause, indicating that the noun refers to a single referent defined by the relative clause. |
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| Blue |
| 1. n. A letterman at Oxford or Cambridge. |
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| 2. n. (historical) A member of the Royal Horse Guards (which merged with the 1st Dragoons in 1969) |
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| 3. n. synonym of British Blue, , a breed of cat |
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| 4. adj. Of the colour blue. |
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| the deep blue sea |
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