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Glite Dictionary
to have the blues

to have the blues

3 7.0
Feel sad and a little down
  • idiom
translation icon : estar triste
  • Whenever it rains, I tend to have the blues and feel down.

Examples

  • ♫ When I have the blues I love to hold you tight ♫

    Into the Night (1985)

  • You really do have the blues.

    Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960)

  • And you had the blues, too.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • She has the blues again; Sheridan can tell by the way she walks.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • She has the blues.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • After losing his job, he couldn't shake off the feeling of having the blues.

  • When she missed her friends, she would often have the blues for days.

Synonyms

to feel down
vsto have the blues
15 3.0

Be sad or unhappy

express stronger sadness or depression rather than mild unhappiness
to feel blue
vsto have the blues
  • Informal
12 6.5

To be sad for a short time

is the same meaning but often implies a temporary period
to cry the blues
vsto have the blues
  • Informal
1 7.5

To feel sad and complain to others

is about feeling sad without necessarily expressing it aloud
to get glumpy
vsto have the blues
  • UK
9.9

To feel sad and moody

refers to sadness without the moodiness or irritability

Antonyms

cheerful
111 1.0

Happy in a way you show with a smile or friendly actions

joyful
70 1.0

Feeling or showing great happiness

How Sad

heartbroken
67 3.2
depressed
441 3.5
sad
∞ 1.0
to have the blues
3 7.0
down
  • Informal
24 6.7

Surface Forms

have the blues infinitive
had the blues past
had the blues past participle
having the blues present participle
has the blues third person singular

Morphology

have + the + blues

The meaning 'to feel sad' is directly derivable from combining 'have' (to experience) with 'blues' (short-term sadness); a learner who knows both constituents can infer the phrase means experiencing sadness. The construction 'have + [noun]' to indicate experiencing a state is a common and productive pattern in English and appears cross-linguistically, so the expression is transparent to B1 learners who know the word 'blues'.

Etymology

Have the blues comes from old sad songs and the color blue: people sang slow songs called the blues about hard times, and the color 'blue' became a picture for feeling low. That's why saying you have the blues means 'to feel sad'.