Bloodily


stained or covered with blood:
a bloody handkerchief.
bleeding:
a bloody nose.
characterized by bloodshed:
bloody battle; a bloody rule.
inclined to bloodshed; bloodthirsty:
a bloody dictator.
of, relating to, or resembling blood; containing or composed of blood:
bloody tissue.
Slang. (used as an intensifier):
a bloody shame; a bloody nuisance.
to stain or smear with blood.
to cause to bleed, as by a blow or accident:
to bloody someone’s nose.
Slang. (used as an intensifier):
bloody awful; bloody wonderful.
Historical Examples

Buckskin Mose Buckskin Mose
The Mutiny of the Elsinore Jack London
The Expositor’s Bible: The Epistle to the Philippians Robert Rainy
Darkness and Dawn Frederic W. Farrar
The Missourian Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle
The Crow’s Nest Clarence Day, Jr.
William Shakespeare John Masefield
Benjamin Franklin; Self-Revealed, Volume II (of 2) Wiliam Cabell Bruce
The Fortunes of Hector O’Halloran, And His Man Mark Antony O’Toole W. H. Maxwell
Military Reminiscences of the Civil War V1 Jacob Dolson Cox

adjective bloodier, bloodiest
covered or stained with blood
resembling or composed of blood
marked by much killing and bloodshed: a bloody war
cruel or murderous: a bloody tyrant
of a deep red colour; blood-red
adverb, adjective
(slang, mainly Brit) (intensifier): a bloody fool, bloody fine food
verb bloodies, bloodying, bloodied
(transitive) to stain with blood
adv.
adj.

The onset of the taboo against bloody coincides with the increase in linguistic prudery that presaged the Victorian Era but it is hard to say what the precise cause was in the case of this specific word. Attempts have been made to explain the term’s extraordinary shock power by invoking etymology. Theories that derive it from such oaths as “By our Lady” or “God’s blood” seem farfetched, however. More likely, the taboo stemmed from the fear that many people have of blood and, in the minds of some, from an association with menstrual bleeding. Whatever, the term was debarred from polite society during the whole of the nineteenth century. [Rawson]

Shaw shocked theatergoers when he put it in the mouth of Eliza Doolittle in “Pygmalion” (1914), and for a time the word was known euphemistically as “the Shavian adjective.” It was avoided in print as late as 1936. Bloody Sunday, Jan. 30, 1972, when 13 civilians were killed by British troops at protest in Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
v.

v. blood·ied, blood·y·ing, blood·ies

Read Also:

  • Blooding

    (in fox hunting) an informal initiation ceremony in which the face of a novice is smeared with the blood of the first fox that person has seen killed. the fluid that circulates in the principal vascular system of human beings and other vertebrates, in humans consisting of plasma in which the red blood cells, white […]

  • Bloodless

    without blood: bloodless surgery. very pale: a bloodless face. free from bloodshed; accomplished without bloodshed: a bloodless victory; a bloodless coup. spiritless; without vigor, zest, or energy: a dull, insipid, bloodless young man. without emotion or feeling; cold-hearted: bloodless data. Contemporary Examples Wendi Murdoch’s Pie Smackdown Samuel P. Jacobs July 18, 2011 The Death Penalty’s […]

  • Bloodless-operation

    bloodless operation

  • Bloodless-revolution

    English Revolution. the events of 1688–89 by which James II was expelled and the sovereignty conferred on William and Mary. noun the Bloodless Revolution, another name for Glorious Revolution

  • Bloodletter

    the act or practice of letting blood by opening a vein; phlebotomy. bloodshed or slaughter. bloodbath. Informal. severe cutbacks or reduction in personnel, appropriations, etc.: The company went through a period of bloodletting in the 1970s. blood’let’ter n.


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