bloody
/ˈblʌ.di/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
India/ˈblɜ.ɖiː/
bloody adjective: covered in blood. Also the ellipsis of bloody mary.
Adjective
bloody (comparative bloodier, superlative bloodiest)
- Covered in blood.
- All that remained of his right hand after the accident was a bloody stump.
- And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall, / Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain.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...
- Synonyms:
- bleeding, bloodied, gory, sanguinolent
- Characterised by bloodshed.
- There have been bloody battles between the two tribes.
- Some bloody paſſion ſhakes your very Frame: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...
- Used as an intensifier.
- Traffic in central London was a bloody mess this morning.
- There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today.1916 May 31, David Beatty during the Battle of Jutland
- Badly behaved; unpleasant; beastly.
- 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.1945, Evelyn Waugh, chapter 5, in Brideshead Revisited […], London: Chapman & Hall, published 1952, →OCLC, book 1 (Et in Arcadia Ego), pages 118–119
Adverb
bloody (comparative more bloody, superlative most bloody)
- Used to express anger, annoyance, or shock, or for emphasis.
- Walk! Not bloody likely. [Sensation]. I am going in a taxi. [She goes out].1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act III, page 153
- "Dice are no bloody good," David said.1994, Robert Jordan, Lord of Chaos, page 109
- Synonyms:
- bloody well, bally, blasted, bleeding, blooming
Verb
bloody (third-person singular simple present bloodies, present participle bloodying, simple past and past participle bloodied)
- To stain with blood.
- The butcher often bloodied his apron in the course of his work.
- To draw blood from (one's opponent) in a fight.
- To demonstrably harm (the cause of an opponent).
Also used as
bloody is also the ellipsis of bloody mary.
bloody meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Kannada
bloody in Hindi
- covered in blood
- लहू-लुहान lahū-luhān, रक्तरंजित raktarañjit
- characterised by great bloodshed
- रक्तरंजित raktarañjit
bloody in Marathi
- covered in blood
- रक्तरंजित raktarañjit
bloody in Bengali
- covered in blood
- রক্তাক্ত roktakto
bloody in Kannada
- ರಕ್ತಸಿಕ್ತ, ರಕ್ತಸಿಕ್ತವಾದದ್ದು, ರಕ್ತಸಿಕ್ತವಾಗಿ
More languagesFewer languages
- bloody in Punjabi
- ਖੂਨੀ
- bloody in Odia
- ରକ୍ତାକ୍ତ
- bloody in Tagalog
- madugo
- bloody in Arabic
- مُدَمَّى mudammā, مُخَضَّب بِالدِّمَاء muḵaḍḍab bi-d-dimāʔ, دَامِي dāmī
- bloody in Malay
- berdarah
- bloody in Indonesian
- berengsek, bedebah
- bloody in Persian
- خونین xunin
- bloody in Thai
- โคตร kôot
- bloody in Vietnamese
- máu me
Examples of bloody in a sentence
- I had therefore been, until now, out of the way of the bloody scenes that often occurred on the plantation.1846 [1845], Frederick Douglass, chapter I, in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Boston: Anti-Slavery Office...
- 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.1994, Robert Jordan, Lord of Chaos, page 519:
- You are not to go asking anyone about who killed that bloody dog.2003, Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, page 64:
- “You bloody fool, I could′ve stabbed you in the heart,” David said in mock anger, and then smiled widely.2007, James MacFarlane, Avenge My Kin, Book 2: A Time of Testing, page 498
Synonyms of bloody
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of bloody
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | bloodier |
| superlative | bloodiest |
| alternative form | bl**dy |
| alternative form (obsolete) | bloudy |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more bloody |
| superlative | most bloody |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | bloodies |
| present participle | bloodying |
| past participle | bloodied |
| past | bloodied |
| Noun | |
| plural | bloodies |
Origin of bloody
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.
From Middle English *blodien, *blodegen (attested as blodeke, bi-blodgi), from Old English blōdgian, blōdegian (“to bloody, make bloody”), from Proto-West Germanic *blōdagōn (“to make bloody”), from Proto-Germanic *blōþagōną (“to make bloody”). Cognate with Middle High German bluotigen (“to make bloody”), Swedish blodga (“to make bloody”), Icelandic blóðga (“to bloody”).
Clipping of bloody mary.
Words formed from bloody
- 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 milk cap
- 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
Phrases with bloody
- bloody well
- bloody backs
- bloody marys
- bloody Norah
- bloody noses
- bloody nouns
- Bloody Kansas
- bloody maries
- Bloody Sunday
- bloody sweats
- Bloody Caesars
- Bloody Halfway
13 more phrasesFewer phrases
- bloody warriors
- bloody Williams
- screams bloody murder
- screamed bloody murder
- waved the bloody shirt
- waves the bloody shirt
- screaming bloody murder
- waving the bloody shirt
- gave someone a bloody nose
- given someone a bloody nose
- gives someone a bloody nose
- Dark and Bloody Ground State
- giving someone a bloody nose
Words that rhyme with bloody
Questions about bloody
- What does bloody mean?
- Bloody means covered in blood.
- What is bloody in Hindi?
- Bloody in Hindi is लहू-लुहान (lahū-luhān), रक्तरंजित (raktarañjit). See Bloody meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use bloody in a sentence?
- I had therefore been, until now, out of the way of the bloody scenes that often occurred on the plantation.
- What part of speech is bloody?
- Bloody can be an adjective, an adverb or a verb.
- How do you pronounce bloody?
- Bloody is pronounced /ˈblʌ.di/.
Words near bloody in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bloody (page history and authors); bloody (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bloody (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bloody (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-bloody.ogg, en-uk-bloody.ogg, EN-AU ck1 bloody.ogg.
Cite this entry: “bloody.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bloody. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.