bluebottle

Etymology

• blue +‎ bottle From resemblance to shiny colored-glass bottles.
• (police officer): From the colour of the uniform.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

bluebottle (plural bluebottles)

1. Any of various blowflies of the genus Calliphora that have an iridescent metallic-blue body and make a loud buzzing noise when flying.
   • 1930, Sax Rohmer, The Day the World Ended, published 1969, page i. 16:

     The incredibly long body as well as the extended wings were of a gleaming purplish-gray colour: I can only liken it to that of a meat fly or common "bluebottle".

2. A marine jellyfish of the genus Physalia, which includes Physalia physalis, the Portuguese man-of-war, and Physalia utriculus, the Pacific man-of-war; a man-of-war.
3. A cornflower, a plant that grows in grain fields, Centaurea cyanus, with blue flowers resembling bottles.
4. A blue ant, Diamma bicolor, a parasitic wasp native to Australia.
5. Any of various large papilionid butterflies of the genus Graphium, also called triangles, etc.
6. (UK, Australia, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A police officer.
   • 1878, Charles Hindley, The life and times of James Catnach, page 206:

     […] comic writers […] have never failed to make capital out of the New Police, Peel's Raw-Lobsters, Peelers, Blue Bottles, &c., &c.

   • 1882, Henry Herman, Henry Arthur Jones, The Silver King:

     COOMBE: He got the clinch only last week — eighteen months. You see it's no good having anybody here as ain't got a^[sic] unblemished character. We don't want to have the bluebottles come sniffing round here, do we?