in a general sense, the blue colour of the sky. See SKY and BLUE.

among painters, the beautiful blue colour, with a greenish tinge, prepared from the lapis lazuli, gene- rally called ultramarine.

With greater propriety, however, azure signifies that bright blue colour prepared from the lapis arme- nus, a different stone from the lapis lazuli, though frequently confounded together. This colour is, by our painters, commonly called Lambert's blue.

in heraldry, the blue colour in the arms of a any person below the rank of a baron. In the escutche- on of a nobleman, it is called sapphire; and in that of a sovereign prince, Jupiter. In engraving, this col- our is expressed by lines, or strokes drawn horizont- ally.