black-and-blue

2 3.2

Skin that has dark marks after a bruise

adjective
/blæk ənd blu/

: moratón

She had a black-and-blue bruise on her leg from bumping into the table.
black-and-blue marks
black-and-blue bruise

And when she did show back up, she was black and blue, covered in bruises.

Examples

And when she did show back up, she was black and blue, covered in bruises.

Dr. Phil
Nice black-and-blue mark on her arm.

Blog text (28)
Well, I still got black-and-blue marks to prove it.

The Horizontal Lieutenant (1962)
Busy as I was, I divined that my chest was taking bruises that would soon be black and blue.

Fiction book (1991)
Her hip was black-and-blue and stunningly painful.

Fiction book (1999)
It was completely numb, but black-and-blue where he had slammed it into the unyielding stone.

Fiction book (1992)
Robby looks at Rudy, lying in the next cubicle, eyes completely yellow and lifeless, face and body covered in black-and-blue splotches.

Fiction book (1995)
His arm was black-and-blue after he fell off his bike.
After the fight, his face was black-and-blue and swollen.

Synonyms

black and blue

vsblack-and-blue

Informal

8 2.1

With dark bruises on the skin from being hit

is the same meaning but shown as a hyphenated written form

livid

vsblack-and-blue

1 6.7

Skin that has dark bluish marks from bruising

is a general term for darkened bruised skin rather than specifically bluish marks

How Bruised

black-and-blue

2 3.2

uninjured

7 1.8

Surface Forms

black-and-blue positive

black and blue positive

Morphology

black-and-blue = black + blue (transparent) = black + blue

A direct descriptive compound combining two color adjectives; the meaning 'marked by black and blue bruises' is inferable from the components.

Etymology

Black-and-blue comes from the simple picture of skin that turns both black and blue after a hard hit. So, to be black-and-blue means to be 'bruised' or have skin that looks dark and blue from an injury.