bloody
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈblʌ.diː/
ipa: /ˈblɜ.ɖiː/
ipa: /ˈblɪ.diː/
rhymes: -ʌdi
Forms: form: bloodier
form: bloodiest
form: bloudy
form: bl**dy
Etymology: From Middle English blody, blodi, from Old English blōdiġ, blōdeġ (“bloody”), from Proto-West Germanic *blōdag, from Proto-Germanic *blōþagaz (“bloody”), equivalent to blood + -y. Cognate with Saterland Frisian bläidich, blöidig, blouderch (“bloody”), West Frisian bloedich (“bloody”), Dutch bloedig (“bloody”), German Low German blödig (“bloody”), German blutig (“bloody”), Danish blodig (“bloody”), Swedish blodig (“bloody”), Faroese blóðigur (“bloody”), Icelandic blóðugur (“bloody”). See Wikipedia for thoughts on sense evolution.
Senses: examples: text: All that remained of his right hand after the accident was a bloody stump.
text: And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall, / Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain.
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
text: O Antony! Begge not your death of vs: / Though now we muſt appeare bloody and cruell, / As by our hands, and this our preſent Acte / You ſee we do: Yet ſee you but our hands, / And this, the bleeding buſineſſe they haue done:
ref: 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 119:
synonyms: bleeding
bloodied
gory
sanguinolent
glosses: Covered in blood.
examples: text: There have been bloody battles between the two tribes.
text: Some bloody paſſion ſhakes your very Frame:
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], page 336:
text: I had therefore been, until now, out of the way of the bloody scenes that often occurred on the plantation.
ref: 1846 [1845], Frederick Douglass, chapter I, in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, page 8:
text: The story of Elizabeth Bathory is one of the bloodiest in history.
ref: 2007, Lucinda Mallows, Lucy Mallows, Slovakia: The Bradt Travel Guide, page 169:
glosses: Characterised by bloodshed.
examples: text: Traffic in central London was a bloody mess this morning.
text: There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today.
ref: 1916 May 31, David Beatty during the Battle of Jutland
text: Try to keep those bloody women's bloody heads on their bloody shoulders by somehow helping them make this whole mad impossible scheme actually work.
ref: 1994, Robert Jordan, Lord of Chaos, page 519:
text: You are not to go asking anyone about who killed that bloody dog.
ref: 2003, Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, page 64:
text: “You bloody fool, I could′ve stabbed you in the heart,” David said in mock anger, and then smiled widely.
ref: 2007, James MacFarlane, Avenge My Kin, Book 2: A Time of Testing, page 498
text: With 109km of fixed infrastructure, of which only 50% is utilised, Perry's message is simple: "put more bloody trains on it!"
ref: 2024 January 24, Dyan Perry talks to Nick Brodrick, “The industry has given me so much”, in RAIL, number 1001, page 45:
synonyms: word: 4ucking
word: accursed
word: bally
word: blasted
word: bleeding
word: bleeping
word: blessed
word: blimming
word: blinking
word: bloody
word: blooming
word: confounded
word: consarned
word: cotton-picking
word: cowson
word: cursed
word: dadburn
word: dadgum
word: dagnabbed
word: damn
word: damnable
word: damned
word: dang
word: danged
word: darn
word: darned
word: dashed
word: deuced
word: doggone
word: dratted
word: effing
word: ever-loving
word: fecking
word: flaming
word: flipping
word: freaking
word: fricking
word: frigging
word: fucking
word: fudging
word: fugging
word: furshlugginer
word: jiggered
word: goddam
word: goddamn
word: goddamned
word: goddarned
word: godforsaken
word: goldurn
word: gormed
word: goshdarn
word: goshdarned
word: hecking
word: infernal
word: living
word: mollyfogging
word: motherfucking
word: pissing
word: plain
word: raasclaat
word: ruddy
word: sniggered
word: sodding
word: stinking
glosses: Used as an intensifier.
examples: text: Come to apologize to Charles. I was bloody to him and he's my guest. He's my guest and my only friend and I was bloody to him.
ref: 1945, Evelyn Waugh, chapter 5, in Brideshead Revisited […], London: Chapman & Hall, published 1952, →OCLC, book 1 (Et in Arcadia Ego), pages 118–119:
glosses: Badly behaved; unpleasant; beastly.
Derived terms: bebloody
bloodily
bloodiness
bloody back
Bloody Caesar
Bloody Code
bloody dock
bloody 'ell
bloody flux
bloody-handed
bloody-handedly
bloody-handedness
bloody heck
bloody hell
bloodyish
bloody mary
Bloody Mary
bloody-minded
bloody-mindedly
bloody-mindedness
bloody Nora
bloody nose
bloody-nosed beetle
bloody noun
bloody oath
bloody show
bloody sweat
bloody up
bloody-warrior
bloody warrior
bloody William
give someone a bloody nose
mucobloody
my bloody oath
nonbloody
raw-head and bloody-bones
scream bloody murder
unbloody
wave the bloody shirt