blood sport
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of blood sport
First recorded in 1890–95
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Before the law, the blood sport had been made illegal in all 50 states, but not U.S. territories.
From Los Angeles Times • May 14, 2026
I, and many other young fans, had little interest in boxing, Mike Tyson or, really, any sort of blood sport.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026
"Amanda's an awful woman, of course," he said, "a backstabbing snob who treats her children as accessories and turns every encounter with her 'mum chums' at the school gates into a blood sport."
From BBC • Feb. 6, 2025
It’s also an example of the plot’s relative shallowness and scripts more concerned with verbal blood sport than teasing out its characters’ interiority.
From Salon • Apr. 5, 2024
I guess cross-country is also a blood sport.
From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.