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to show (something written) to be no longer valid by drawing a cross over or a line through it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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OpenClaw agents have been tricked into uploading sensitive data, including financial information and crypto wallet keys; in other cases, agents have deleted emails and code libraries.—
Nicholas Gordon,
Fortune,
14 Mar. 2026
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Even worse, the fake Claude Code steals sensitive data like passwords, session cookies, and more, and is very difficult to delete.—
Alan Henry,
PC Magazine,
13 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Numerous artists have canceled performances and attendance has dropped off.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
15 Mar. 2026
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As of the afternoon of March 15, 2,632 flights within, into, or out of the United States were delayed, and 1,678 were canceled, according to FlightAware.—
Rachel Barber,
USA Today,
15 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Blue-pencil.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/blue-pencil. Accessed 21 Mar. 2026.
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