blue-pencil v. t. To change, delete, or abridge (a portion of a text) with a blue pencil (or as if with a blue pencil), as in the editing process; of books, etc.
... the "singing-robes and the overalls of Journalism" is true and striking. Good and true writing no magazine or newspaper editor will blue-pencil. But "fine" writing is a different thing—a style that is conscious of itself, a style in which the thought is commonplace and the language studied and ornate, every judicious editor will blue-pencil. Downrightness ... — The Last Harvest • John Burroughs
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