as in to delete
to show (something written) to be no longer valid by drawing a cross over or a line through it
military censors blue-penciled any remarks that could possibly be deemed critical
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Recent Examples of blue-pencil
Before getting sunk by a turgid love story — the kind of cinematic dead zone Thalberg would have blue-penciled in the screenplay stage — The Last Tycoon provides a good sense of what a producer actually does.
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Thomas Doherty, HollywoodReporter, 20 Apr. 2025
Thomas Doherty, HollywoodReporter, 20 Apr. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for blue-pencil
Verb
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He is also charged with felony discharge of a firearm, committing a violent act in the presence of a child, and two counts of witness tampering for instructing a roommate to delete incriminating texts and avoid cooperating with police.—
Amanda Castro
Mandy Taheri
Peter Aitken,
MSNBC Newsweek,
21 Sep. 2025
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This is a direct consequence of no-go theorems like no-cloning, no-deleting, no-hiding and uncertainty—any attempt to eavesdrop alters the quantum signal, alerting the sender and receiver.—
Pravir Malik,
Forbes.com,
19 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Mahtomedi High School officials canceled Friday night’s football game against Bloomington Kennedy, saying the Washington County Sheriff’s Office had advised them to do so due to ongoing law enforcement activity in the area.—
Kristi Miller,
Twin Cities,
20 Sep. 2025
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On social media, people have posted photos of them canceling their subscriptions to streaming services Disney Plus and Hulu in support of Kimmel.—
Anthony Robledo,
USA Today,
20 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Blue-pencil.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/blue-pencil. Accessed 22 Sep. 2025.
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