Forms: 1 blódiʓ, 3–4 blodi, 3–7 blody, (4 blode, bloide), 6 blouddie, bluddie, -y, 6–7 bloudie, -y, bloodie, 6– bloody. Sc. 5 bludy, 6 bludie, 8–9 bluidie, -y. [Com. Teut.: OE. blódiʓ = OFris. blodich, OS. blôdag, -ig (Du. bloedig), OHG. bluotag (MHG. bluotec, mod.Ger. blutig), ON. blóðug-r, -ig-r:—OTeut. *blôđago-z: see BLOOD and -Y.]
A. adj.
1. Of the nature of, composed of, or like blood.
a. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, Voc., 113. Dissenteria, blodiʓ utsiht.
a. 1240. Lofsong, in Lamb. Hom., 207. Bi his blodie swote … Bi his blodi Rune þet ron inne monie studen.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 40. Blody, sanguinolentus.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 260. In great agony he swet blody droppes.
1815. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 5), III. 461. Some authors speak of bloody baths … prepared especially of the blood of infants.
1818. Byron, Ch. Har., IV. cxlii. Here, where Murder breathed her bloody steam.
1875. B. Richardson, Dis. Mod. Life, 15. The phenomenon called, in early times, ‘bloody sweat,’ has been disputed.
b. Pertaining or relating to the blood.
1716. M. Davies, Dissert. Physick, 4, in Athen. Brit., III. Cæsalpinus had a proper Opportunity to speak at large of that Bloody discovery [i.e., of the circulation of the blood].
2. Covered, smeared, stained, with blood; bleeding.
a. 1117. O. E. Chron. Wearð se mona lange nihtes swylce he eall blodiʓ wære.
1297. R. Glouc., 311. Here ys þat knyf al blody.
a. 1400. Relig. Pieces fr. Thornton MS., 85. His bludy woundes was reuthe to see.
1530–1. Act 22 Hen. VIII., xii. To be beten with whippes … tyll his body be blody.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., II. v. 71. My Teares shall wipe away these bloody markes.
1656. H. More, Antid. Ath., III. ix. (1662), 117. Dirty bloody spots.
1757. Gray, Bard, I. iii. 48. Weave with bloody hands the tissue of thy line.
1800. Windham, Speeches Parl. (1812), I. 336. Unfortunately, murder was the consequence of that scuffle, amongst Englishmen, would have terminated in a black eye or a bloody nose.
b. Bloody grave: the grave of one who has died by bloodshed. † Bloody hand, in Forest-law (see quot.; cf. RED-HAND(ED); in Heraldry, the armorial device of Ulster, derived from the O’Neils; hence borne by baronets.
1800. Scott, Eve St. John, xli. By Eildon tree, for long nights three, Im bloody grave have I lain.
1885. Sat. Rev., 25 April, 525/2. Gordon sleeps in his bloody grave.
1598. Manwood, Lawes Forest, xviii. § 9. Bloudy hand is, where a man is found coursing in the Forest … and is any manner of way imbrewed with bloud, or, that is found imbrewed with bloud … in the Forest, although he be not found Hunting or coursing there.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Bloody Hand, one of the four kinds of trespasses in the king’s forest.
1835. Marryat, Pacha, i. The bloody hand in the dexter chief of a baronet.
1852. Househ. Wds., V. 8. One sunbeam, coming through a grimed window, and illuminating a bloody hand. There had been a murder done there.
1874. Student’s Hume, xx. 367. Hence baronets bear on their shields the arms of Ulster, a bloody hand.
3. Of animals, or parts of their bodies: Having blood in the veins; containing blood. arch. or Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. cviii. (1495), 850. In all beestes that haue blody lounges is a bledder.
1595. Shaks., John, IV. ii. 210. Slaues, that take [Kings] humors for a warrant, To breake within the bloody house of life.
1607. Topsell, Serpents, 597. A Serpent [is] … a Bloudy Beast without feet.
1818. Art Preserv. Feet, 53. The bloody corn … is apt to yield blood on the first touch of the knife.
4. Accompanied by or involving the flowing or spilling of blood.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 1388. Or hadde in armys manye a blodi box.
1530. Palsgr., 199/1. Blody mensyn sickenesse.
1605. Shaks., Macb., II. iv. 23. Is’t known who did this more then bloody deed?
c. 1620. Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 155. Our bloody blowes assuredly he feeles.
1828. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), I. 94. Their bloody idolatry, and stormful untutored energy.
1853. Kingsley, Hypatia, xxi. I have offered for years the unbloody sacrifice to Him who will perhaps require of me a bloody one.
b. esp. Attended with much bloodshed and slaughter; sanguinary.
1593. Bilson, Govt. Christ’s Ch., 306. The bloudie stormes of tyrants.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. xlviii. § 10. A bitter and a bloody conflict.
1678. N. Wanley, Wonders, V. i. § 102. That long and bloody War in the Empire of Germany.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 70, ¶ 4. The Poet … describes a bloody Battle and dreadful Scene of Death.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 227. The most bloody day of the whole war.
5. Of thoughts, words, etc.: Concerned with, portending, decreeing bloodshed.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 288. Ruben, þu read þeof, þu blodi delit.
c. 1300. Beket, 537. Alto blodi was that word: and deore it was i-bouȝt.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, 1239. That maken blody soun In trumpe, beme, and claryoun.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., Pref. Without hearyng the cause bloody sentences are pronounced against it.
1610. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 220. I do begin to haue bloody thoughts.
1766. Porny, Heraldry, iii. (1777), 23. A print of the bloody Warrant for the execution of K. Charles I.
6. Addicted to bloodshed, blood-thirsty, cruel; tainted with crimes of blood, blood-guilty.
1563. Bp. Bonner, in Foxe, A. & M., 1254/2. They reporte me to seek bloud, and call me bloudye Boner.
c. 1577. Northbrooke, Dicing (1843), 179. Howe the blouddie Papistes murther and slaughter in all places rounde aboute vs our poore brethren.
1611. Bible, Ps. v. 6. The Lord will abhorre the bloodie and deceitfull man.
1681. Addr. fr. Radnor, in Lond. Gaz., No. 1671/4. The Factious Schismaticks, and Bloody Romanists.
1795. Windham, Speeches Parl. (1812), I. 278. Why could it not have done so before, in the administration of the bloody Robespierre?
1853. Dickens, Child’s Hist. Eng., xxx. As Bloody Queen Mary, this woman has become famous, and as Bloody Queen Mary, she will ever be remembered with horror and detestation.
1862. Sat. Rev., 8 Feb., 154. Our native bloody villains.
7. Of the color of blood, blood-red.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., II. iv. 61. Yorke. Now Somerset, where is your argument? Som. Here in my Scabbard … that Shall dye your white Rose in a bloody red.
1671. Lond. Gaz., No. 627/4. A Bloody Bay Gelding,… was stollen out of Stamford Fields.
1755. Gentl. Mag., XXV. 280. Near the spot where this accident happened, an anchor was immediately dropped, and a red buoy (called the bloody buoy) fixed to it.
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., II. vii. The bloody sun at noon, Right up above the mast did stand.
1823. Lockhart, Sp. Ballads, Moor Cal., iv. His banner … Whereon revealed his bloody field its pale and crescent moon.
† 8. Allied by blood. (In Langland, with fig. reference to the blood of Christ.) Obs.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. VII. 196. Heo beoþ my blodi breþeren, for god bouȝte vs all. [Also B. VI. 10; XI. 195; C. IX. 17.]
9. dial. Of good blood, well descended.
1877. Peacock, Linc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), He comes of a bloody stock; that’s why he’s good to poor folks.
10. In foul language, a vague epithet expressing anger, resentment, detestation; but often a mere intensive, esp. with a negative, as ‘not a bloody one.’ [Prob. from the adv. use in its later phase.]
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, ii. 2. You’ll find me a bloody rascal. Ibid., xx. 61. They’ve got a man for a mate of that ship, and not a bloody sheep about decks!
1880. Ruskin, Fiction Fair & F., § 29. The use of the word ‘bloody’ in modern low English is a deeper corruption, not altering the form of the word, but defiling the thought in it.
B. adv. † 1. Bloodily; with blood. Obs.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 10424. Buernes on þe bent blody beronen.
2. As an intensive: Very …. and no mistake, exceedingly; abominably, desperately. In general colloquial use from the Restoration to c. 1750; now constantly in the mouths of the lowest classes, but by respectable people considered ‘a horrid word,’ on a par with obscene or profane language, and usually printed in the newspapers (in police reports, etc.) ‘b——y.’
[The origin is not quite certain; but there is good reason to think that it was at first a reference to the habits of the ‘bloods’ or aristocratic rowdies of the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th c. The phrase ‘bloody drunk’ was apparently = ‘as drunk as a blood’ (cf. ‘as drunk as a lord’); thence it was extended to kindred expressions, and at length to others; probably, in later times, its associations with bloodshed and murder (cf. a bloody battle, a bloody butcher) have recommended it to the rough classes as a word that appeals to their imagination. We may compare the prevalent craving for impressive or graphic intensives, seen in the use of jolly, awfully, terribly, devilish, deuced, damned, ripping, rattling, thumping, stunning, thundering, etc. There is no ground for the notion that ‘bloody,’ offensive as from associations it now is to ears polite, contains any profane allusion or has connection with the oath ‘’s blood!’]
1676. Etheredge, Man of Mode, I. i. (1684), 9. Not without he will promise to be bloody drunk.
1684. Dryden, Prol. Southerne’s Disappointm., 59. The doughty Bullies enter bloody drunk.
1693. Southerne, Maid’s last Pr., II. ii. 31. Faith and troth, you were bloody angry. Ibid., III. i. 38. She took it bloody ill of him.
1727. Swift, Poison. E. Curll, Wks. 1755, III. I. 149. His wife … said, ‘Are you not sick, my dear?’ He replied ‘Bloody sick.’
1742. Richardson, Pamela, III. 405. He is bloody passionate. I saw that at the Hall.
1743. Fielding, Wed. Day, III. vi. This is a bloody positive old fellow.
1753. Foote, Eng. in Paris, II. (1763), 29. She’s a bloody fine Girl.
C. In combination.
1. Obvious combinations, as bloody-black; chiefly parasynthetic, as bloody-backed, -eyed, -faced, -handed, -hearted, -minded, -sceptred, with their derivatives, as bloody-mindedness; also others somewhat analogous, as bloody-intended having bloody intentions; or adverbial, as † bloody-crying (crying for blood); † bloody-hunting (hunting for blood).
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, ch. xv. They have the *bloody-backed dragoons … with them.
1772. Cullum, in Phil. Trans., LXII. 466. Half a pint of a *bloody-black water in the thorax.
a. 1617. Hieron, Wks., II. 317. They are all *bloudy-crying-sinnes, and such as to which belongs an especiall wo.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. iii. 22. In a Theame so *bloody fac’d, as this.
1821. Byron, Sardan., IV. i. 115. A … bloody-eyed, And *bloody-handed, ghastly, ghostly thing.
1654. Gataker, Disc. Apol., 91. How poor a curb … to keep men from being *bloodie-hearted, and bloodie-handed.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., III. iii. 41. Herods *bloody-hunting slaughter-men.
1606. Bk. Com. Prayer, Prayer 5th Nov. The most traiterous and *bloody-intended Massacre by Gun-powder.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., IV. i. 36. Yet let not this make thee be *bloody-minded.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., vii. (1873), 140. When the old bloody-minded tyrant is gone to his long account.
1870. Lowell, Study Wind., 214. What a difference between the straight-forward *bloody-mindedness of Orestes and the metaphysical punctiliousness of the Dane.
1605. Shaks., Macb., IV. iii. 104. O Nation miserable! With an vntitled Tyrant, *bloody Sceptred.
2. Special combinations: † bloody fall, an ailment of the feet similar to chilblains; † bloody flux (formerly flix), dysentery; hence bloody-fluxed a.; bloody nose beetle, the popular name of Timarcha (see quot.); † bloody-water, a disease, hæmaturia.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 76. The angry chilblanes and *bloudy-fals that trouble the feet in the night season.
1473. Warkw., Chron. (1839), 23. Unyversalle feveres, axes, and the *blody flyx.
1579. Langham, Gard. Health (1633), 441. Bloudy fluxe.
1611. Bible, Acts xxviii. 8. The father of Publius lay sicke of a feuer and of a bloody-flixe.
1706. trans. Lemery’s Treat. Foods, II. vi. 161. They make use of its [the sheep’s] suet inwardly taken to stop the Bloody-flux.
1615. Bp. Hall, Contempl. N. T., IV. iii. It was free and safe for the leper and *bloody-fluxed to touch thee.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., III. 142. In that of the *bloody-nose beetle that segment is bifid.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 660. The Timarcha lævigata … emits a reddish yellow fluid from the joints when disturbed; from which circumstance it is commonly known by the name of the Bloody-nose Beetle.
1734. Arbuthnot, in Swift’s Lett. (1766), II. 205. I had forborn [to ride] for some years, because of *bloody water.
b. In popular names of plants, as bloody finger, the Foxglove; bloody man’s finger, the same; also the Arum or Wake-Robin; bloody rain = Blood rain (see BLOOD sb. 19); bloody dock (Rumex sanguineus); bloody twig, the Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea); bloody warrior, a dark Wall-flower. (See Prior, Britten and Holland.)
1758. Borlase, Nat. Hist. Cornwall, xix. § 9. 235. The bloody sea-dock.
1838. Econ. Vegetation, 156. The ‘gory dew,’ Palmella cruenta, and ‘bloody rain,’ Lepraria kermesina … are referrible to these humble and harmless tribes of vegetation.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., III. 108. The branches were so red, so like twigs of coral, that … its name of Bloody Twig … seemed appropriate.
