azure
az·ure (az̸h′ər)
adjective
of or like the color of a clear sky; sky-blue
Etymology: ME asur < OFr azur (with omission of initial l-, as if l'azur) < Ar lāzaward < Pers lāzhuward, lapis lazuli
noun
- sky blue or any similar blue color
- Old Poet. the blue sky
Preposition: on
- argent: His arms were a lion azure on a field argent.
Modifies a noun
- damselfly: She can still be distinguished as an azure damselfly by the pattern of black stripes on the side of her thorax.
- sky: Azure sea azure sky over which we float in a dream.
- sea: Azure sea azure sky over which we float in a dream.
- ocean: The breeze from the Bay of Bengal was bracing, the sun glistened off the azure ocean and the palm fronds swayed.
- blue: The main shield is the saltire, the national flag of Scotland, azure blue with a silver white diagonal cross.
- water: The warm azure waters of the Ionian wash the long stretch of fine golden sand at Glyfada beach.
Used with adjective complement
- bend: Argent a bend azure with three leopards ' heads or thereon.
When Britain first, at heaven's command, Arose from out the azure main, This was the charter of the land, And guardian angels sung this strain: 'Rule,Britannia, rule the waves; Britons never will be slaves.'
Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams The blue Mediterranean, where he lay, Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams Beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay, And saw in sleep old palaces and towers Quivering within the wave's intenser day, All overgrown with azure moss and flowers So sweet, the sense faints picturing them.
I emerged at last, stumbled a few steps in the mud and then I saw it: an ethereal mountain emerging from a tossing sea of clouds framed between two dark barracksöa massive, blue-black tooth of sheer rock inlaid with azure glaciers, austere yet floating fairy-like on the near horizon. It was the first17,000-foot peak I had ever seen. I stood gazing until the vision disappeared among the shifting cloud banks. For hours afterwards I remained spell-bound. I had definitely fallen in love.
