ruddy
Part of speech: adj
adv
noun
verb
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewdʰ-der.
Old English rudu
Proto-Indo-European *-kos
Proto-Germanic *-gaz
Proto-West Germanic *-g
Old English -iġ
Old English rudiġ
Middle English rody
English ruddy
Inherited from Middle English rody, from Old English rudiġ (“reddish; ruddy”), from rudu + -iġ. By surface analysis, rud (“redness”) + -y. Compare Icelandic roði (“redness”).
The British slang sense expressing irritation is presumably a euphemism for bloody.
Inflected forms:
form: ruddier
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: ruddiest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: ruddies
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: ruddies
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: ruddying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: ruddied
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: ruddied
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: Reddish in color, especially of the face, fire, or sky.
pos: adj
examples: Drystone walls, farm buildings and stone cottages, roofed with ruddy tiles, line the way and blend gently into the surrounding countryside.
A silvery cloud drifted over the mountains that surrounded him, its edges glowing with ruddy light cast from the harvest moon cradled between two peaks.
Frank, who is narrow and ruddy, and who tended to wear a shirt and tie with a cherry-red beanie pulled low over one ear, swapped his white butcher’s coat for a puffer jacket, and led me outside
gloss: Robust and vigorous, like a person with a red complexion (as compared to a pale one).
pos: adj
examples: in ruddy health
gloss: A mild intensifier, expressing irritation.
pos: adj
tags: Australia
UK
not-comparable
slang
examples: "Sister?" I inquired. "She ain't 'ere," a man's voice said. "What's more," it went on, "she ain't been 'ere for ruddy hours, neither. Can't you pull them ruddy curtains, mate, and let's 'ave some flippin' light?"
“Of all the damn silly fatheaded things!” she vociferated, if that's the word. “With a million ruddy names to choose from, these ruddy Creams call one ruddy son Wilbert and the other ruddy son Wilfred, and both these ruddy sons are known as Willie. Just going out of their way to mislead the innocent bystander. You'd think people would have more consideration.”
Michael, you have been sitting on your butt for the last two hours! Why didn't you mow the ruddy lawn?!!
I shall monitor your behaviour carefully during Marge’s visit. If, at the end of it, you’ve toed the line and kept to the story, I’ll sign your ruddy form.
If he moved a muscle, they would both be in DEEP TROUBLE.
“It must have been a bird, Mr Big,” said Dad.
“Ruddy big bird,” muttered the little man. “Now we have to get out of here before the fuzz start sniffing around. Fingers, get the Rolls resprayed and change the number plates in case they trace it.”
“Yes, guv’nor.”
gloss: A mild intensifier, expressing irritation.
pos: adv
tags: UK
not-comparable
slang
examples: “So, you made quite a splash on Question Time, my homeless pal,” he continued. “Ruddy hilarious. Ha ha ha!”
'You're not ruddy going anywhere,' he said, slamming the door behind him.
gloss: A ruddy duck.
pos: noun
tags: informal
examples: In winter, snow geese land at West Pond, a Robert Moses legacy that ought to be called Duck Soup: at this time of year look for ruddies, greater scaups, Northern pintails, American widgeons and gadwalls.
gloss: A ruddy ground dove.
pos: noun
tags: informal
examples: Ground doves — two ruddies are shown here — are so called because they feed on the ground.
Understandably, birders in the U.S. are advised to carefully distinguish Ruddies from the usually more-expected Common Ground-Doves [...]. (Brightly-colored, pinkish adult male Common Ground-Doves have been misidentified as male Ruddies on several occasions, however.) Unless the fortunate birder happens upon a Ruddy Ground-Dove amongst a flock of sparrows, it will often be necessary to sort through innumerable Inca Doves.
Common Ground-Dove — Fairly common permanent resident of better-watered valleys at lower elevations. Avoids town [...] Ironically, Ruddies often ignore the little flocks of closely related Commons, and choose to associate with Inca Doves.
Out-of-state birders seeking Ruddy Ground Doves should be aware of two things. Ruddies associate much more frequently with Inca Doves than with Common Ground Doves. In fact, in eleven personal sightings of this species in Arizona, I have never seen a Ruddy with a Common nor has anyone else I know. [...] Perhaps this is a slow invasion, and forty years hence Ruddies will be so common ...
gloss: To make reddish in colour.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The sunset ruddied our faces.
It ruddied all the copse-wood glen
Synonyms: bally
bleeding
blimming
bloody
blooming
Derived words: ruddily
ruddiness
ruddy diver
ruddyish
ruddy Nora
ruddy shelduck
ruddy-tailed flycatcher
ruddy turnstone
Translations: