iron bluen.adj.

1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Pastorals ii, in tr. Virgil Wks. 8 The Daughters of the Flood have..set soft Hyacinths with Iron blue, To shade marsh Marigolds of shining Hue.

1836 Penny Cycl. VI. 15/1 The tail [of the fly], which is rather forked, and of a lustrous black, shot as it were with iron blue.

1891 Dublin Jrnl. Med. Sci. 92 266 A beautiful contrast between a deep iron blue of the contracted lung..and the glistening white firm covering of the altered pleura.

1922 W. J. Locke Tale of Triona xix. 383 The sunset colours over the ridge of hills died into iron blue of the sky.

2000 Scotsman (Nexis) 30 May 15 The piercing iron blue of his eyes.

1826 Bowlker's Art of Angling (new ed.) 100 (heading) Little iron blue.

1897 Daily News 27 July 8/1 That was an Iron Blue changing into a Jenny Spinner.

1928 W. F. R. Reynolds With Fly Only 65 Perhaps an iron blue or two, and a few Greenwells.

1946 R. L. Haig-Brown River never Sleeps 246 I opened my fly box... Olives looked up at me,..my pet iron blues, hare's-ears, pheasant tails, [etc.].

1996 J. Goddard Trout-fishing Techniques i. 35 A very small upwinged fly will start emerging called an iron blue. This very tiny, dark-coloured fly is a member of the Baetis genus.

1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 150 The blue pigments of a metallic nature found in commerce are the following: Prussian blue; mountain blue..; iron blue, phosphate of iron, little employed; [etc.].

1883 G. S. Woodhead Pract. Pathol. ii. 72 Sections taken from an organ injected with Prussian blue must be mounted in a fluid which contains no arsenious acid, as that substance causes decolorisation of the iron blue.

1918 Color Trade Jrnl. Feb. 72/2 The names ‘Mineral Blue’, ‘Iron Blue’, ‘Cyanogen Blue’, have been indiscriminately used by the trade.

1948 S. F. Dimlich in W. von Fischer Paint & Varnish Technol. vi. 93 Iron blue is probably the most important blue pigment used by the paint industry.

2007 P. A. Lewis in A. A. Tracton Coatings Materials & Surface Coatings xxxii. 2 Various specialty grades of iron blue exist that differ in masstone, tint strength, dispersion, and oil absorption.

?1758 R. Bowlker Art of Angling Improved 62 (heading) The Little Iron-Blue Fly.

1840 C. H. Smith Nat. Hist. Dogs (Naturalist's Libr.: Mammalia X) II. 96 This race was anciently of an iron-blue colour, and approached, in the form of the mouth, the present Suliot dogs.

1895 M. Beerbohm in Chap Bk. 4 312 I saw again the hat with the broad brim, and lo, over its iron-blue surface little furrows had been ploughed by Despair.

1932 ‘L. G. Gibbon’ Sunset Song 209 Hatless, and long as ever, with the great moustaches and the iron blue eyes.

1974 R. Adams Shardik li. 423 The distant prospect was closed by the mountains—jagged, iron-blue heights.

2011 C. Frazier Nightwoods 8 The surface of the lake flat and iron blue.

1811 R. Salter Mod. Angler 56 The cow-dung fly continues all the summer months, but is not worth your attention after the iron-blue fly has made its appearance.

1844 S. Williams Boy's Treasury Sports 181 The fern and ash flies continue till September; the hazel, yellow sally, and little iron blue flies for a month.

1949 D. Holland Trout Fishing v. 68 If pale olive May flies are hatching, the trout won't look at an iron-blue fly.