See Also: Bloody(medicine)
bloody(2)(dictionary)
bloody(1)(dictionary)
bloody 3, verb(dictionary)
bloody 2, adjective(dictionary)
bloody-minded(dictionary)
Bloody Sunday(dictionary)
Bloody Mary(dictionary)
Bloody Sunday(encyclopedia)
Bloody Blast(recipes)

bloody(1) (iou)



bloody adjective & adverb.

A. adjective.
Of the nature of, composed of, resembling, or pertaining to blood. OE.
Covered, smeared, or stained with blood. OE.
Yeats Their throats torn and bloody.
Accompanied by or involving bloodshed. ME.
D. Bagley Serrurier..took power in bloody revolution and kept it by equally bloody government.
Of thoughts, words, etc.: concerned with, portending, or decreeing bloodshed. ME.
Of animal bodies: containing blood. LME-E19.
E. Topsell A Serpent [is]..a Bloudy Beast without feet.
Bloodthirsty, blood-guilty. M16.
Bible (AV): Psalms 5:6 The Lord will abhorre the bloodie and deceitfull man.
Blood-red. L16.
G. M. Hopkins Tender pinks with bloody Tyrian dye.
(See comment at sense B.2.)
a. Used vaguely as a strong imprecation or intensive; confounded, damnable, cursed. M17.
call a spade a bloody shovel: see SPADE noun1.
Oxford English Dictionary Not a bloody one. S. L. Elliott The Army must be payin' you more than the bloody Colonel. E. Blishen That bloody boy! Wait till I get you home.
b. Unpleasant, deplorable; perverse. M20.
C. Connolly Oxford is just bloody. R. Lehmann He made me so mean and bloody.
b. adverb.
Bloodily. Only in ME.
Used vaguely as a strong imprecation or intensive; exceedingly, very; confoundedly, damnably. Also inserted within words (tmesis). (In general colloq. use until M18; later regarded as on a par with obscene or profane language, hence numerous euphemistic alternatives as blasted, blinking, blooming, etc.; now usu. regarded as strong but not deeply offensive.) L17.
Dryden The doughty Bullies enter bloody drunk. Henry Fielding This is a bloody positive old fellow. G. B. Shaw Walk! Not bloody likely. L. W. Meynell Remember the News Chronicle?..On sale one day. Amalga-bloody-mated the next. R. Rendell The furthest bloody abroad I'm going ever again will be the Isle of Wight.
Comb. & special collocations: bloody flux, bloody flix dysentery; bloody grave the grave of one who has been murdered; bloody hand: the armorial device of some baronets; Bloody Mary (a) Mary Tudor; (b) a mixed drink of vodka and tomato juice; bloody-minded adjective (a) inclined to bloodshed, bloodthirsty, cruel; (b) perverse, cantankerous, stubbornly intransigent; bloody-mindedly adverb in a bloody-minded manner; bloody-mindedness the state or quality of being bloody-minded; Bloody Monday: see MONDAY noun; bloody-nosed beetle a large black beetle, Timarcha tenebricosa, which exudes a red liquid from its mouth when handled; bloody shirt: see SHIRT noun; bloody sweat an exudation of blood mixed with sweat; bloody warrior: see WARRIOR noun 2; raw head and bloody bones: see RAW adjective.
bloodily adverb in a bloody manner; with blood, with bloodshed: M16.
bloodiness noun L16.