bluebottle

English

Bluebottle (marine jelly of the genus Physalia) washed ashore at Batemans Bay, New South Wales, Australia

Etymology

• blue +‎ bottle From resemblance to shiny colored-glass bottles.
• (police officer): From the colour of the uniform.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Noun

bluebottle (plural bluebottles)

1. Any of various blowflies of the genus Calliphora that have an iridescent metallic-blue body and make a loud buzzing noise when flying.
   • 1930, Sax Rohmer, The Day the World Ended, published 1969, page i. 16:

     The incredibly long body as well as the extended wings were of a gleaming purplish-gray colour: I can only liken it to that of a meat fly or common "bluebottle".

2. A marine jellyfish of the genus Physalia, which includes Physalia physalis, the Portuguese man-of-war, and Physalia utriculus, the Pacific man-of-war; a man-of-war.
3. A cornflower, a plant that grows in grain fields, Centaurea cyanus, with blue flowers resembling bottles.
4. A blue ant, Diamma bicolor, a parasitic wasp native to Australia.
5. Any of various large papilionid butterflies of the genus Graphium, also called triangles, etc.
6. (UK, Australia, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A police officer.
   • 1882, Henry Herman, Henry Arthur Jones, The Silver King:

     COOMBE: He got the clinch only last week — eighteen months. You see it's no good having anybody here as ain't got a unblemished character. We don't want to have the bluebottles come sniffing round here, do we?

Hypernyms

• blowfly, bottlefly

Coordinate terms

• greenbottle, green-bottle fly

Derived terms

• blue-bottle fly

Translations

blowfly of the genus Calliphora

• Finnish: raatokärpänen
• German: Schmeißfliege (de) f
• Greek: κρεατόμυγα (el) f (kreatómyga)
• Korean: 검정파리 (geomjeongpari)
• Maori: rango tamumu
• Norman: moûque à vèrs f (Jersey)
• Portuguese: varejeira azul f
• Russian: тру́пная му́ха f (trúpnaja múxa)

Portuguese man-of-war — see Portuguese man-of-war

cornflower — see cornflower

blue ant — see blue ant