bloody
Americanadjective
-
bloodier,
comparative
-
bloodiest
superlative
-
stained or covered with blood.
a bloody handkerchief.
- Synonyms:
- gory, sanguinary
-
bleeding.
a bloody nose.
- Synonyms:
- gory, sanguinary
-
characterized by bloodshed.
bloody battle; a bloody rule.
- Synonyms:
- gory, sanguinary
-
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.
verb (used with object)
-
bloodies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
bloodied,
past participle, past
-
bloodying
present participle
-
to stain or smear with blood.
-
to cause to bleed, as by a blow or accident.
to bloody someone's nose.
adverb
adjective
-
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
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
bloodysimple
-
bloodiessimple
-
have bloodiedperfect
-
has bloodiedperfect
-
am bloodyingprogressive
-
are bloodyingprogressive
-
is bloodyingprogressive
-
have been bloodyingperfect progressive
-
has been bloodyingperfect progressive
Past
-
bloodiedsimple
-
had bloodiedperfect
-
was bloodyingprogressive
-
were bloodyingprogressive
-
had been bloodyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bloody
before 1000; Middle English blody, Old English blōdig. See blood, -y 1
Explanation
Something that's bloody is stained or covered with blood, like a bloody nose. In British slang, bloody means something like “very.” That’s bloody brilliant! Things that are literally bloody have blood on them or are made of blood. Figuratively bloody things, on the other hand, only imply blood — a bloody coup, for example, is a government overthrow that involves some amount of violence. To bloody something is to cover it in blood: "I will bloody your nose if you say that again!" It comes from the Old English blodig, from blod, or "blood."
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.
See Examples For:
She added: "I know I would have made a bloody good granny."
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
The Buddha, seeing him bruised, bloody, and weeping, smiles and tells him he must bear it.
From Slate ● Jul. 10, 2026
This hasn’t survived two centuries of bloody revolution, lapsing religious faith and the catastrophic first half of the 20th century.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
The action, which is not bloody or at all deadly, has the fizzy charm and slapstick charge of prime Jackie Chan.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026
It was my money, maybe, but I was a stranger with a bloody face and he’d given something to me that he didn’t have to.
From "The Honest Truth" by Dan Gemeinhart
“History teaches us a simple lesson: Wars without a clear objective do not stay small. They get bigger, they get bloodier, they get longer, they get more expensive,” Schumer said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 3, 2026
Beloved in Italy, it anticipates “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” though its sense of humor is broader and its budget evidently bigger, with bloodier battles and cinematography that approaches the picturesque.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 14, 2026
The bad news is that, now, the battle for best picture will be bloodier than ever.
From New York Times ● Jan. 3, 2024
Their stories are little-known footnotes of Cold War history, but six American GIs provide possible roadmaps for his future — though a COVID-19-era development could be a benchmark for a bloodier outcome.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 19, 2023
Milroy's command debouched into the Valley of the Shenandoah, already memorable for its many bloody conflicts, and destined to become yet more memorable by reason of still other and far bloodier battles.
From Slavery and Four Years of War, Vol. 1-2 A Political History of Slavery in the United States Together With a Narrative of the Campaigns and Battles of the Civil War In Which the Author Took Part: 1861-1865 by Joseph Warren Keifer
The bloodiest crisis in Iran’s recent political history started in a conservative bastion: Tehran’s market area.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 22, 2026
But the extremely strained relations between the two sides after nearly four years of Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II have cast doubt over the prospect of direct Ukraine-Russia talks.
From Barron's ● Dec. 21, 2025
Although this may have been the bloodiest incident involving American tourists at the historic monument, it is far from the first.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2025
Steven Peters was deployed to Helmand Province in 2009, during a period which became known as the British Army’s bloodiest summer in more than 50 years.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2024
From then on, even in the bloodiest periods of the war, the two commanders would arrange truces to exchange prisoners.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
But the outlook for more than one team joining the Wildcats is growing bleaker by the week as the conference bloodies itself.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 12, 2024
And when the pope returns to Rome on Sunday, the country’s woes will remain, both in the violence that bloodies the land and in the treasure buried in the soil.
From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2023
But in creativity, knocking harder often just bloodies your knuckles.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 22, 2020
The son of a Yorkshire butcher, Bennett may be wishing against wish for a good honest job that bloodies the hands.
From Time Magazine Archive
He never bloodies his sword but in heat of battle, and had rather save one of his own soldiers than kill ten of his enemies.
From Character Writings of the 17th Century by Various
The ad featured the iconic photograph of Curran helping a bloodied Trump off the stage in Butler.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 2026
A bloodied Lauren Price dug deep to beat Stephanie Pineiro on points to retain her welterweight world titles in Cardiff before calling for a future fight with Claressa Shields.
From BBC ● Apr. 4, 2026
The winner of this primary might have earned little more than a third of the vote, and will enter the fall’s general election bloodied from high-profile slings and arrows from their own side.
From Salon ● Jan. 11, 2026
Her organisation recently carried out a mission to the Bulgaria-Turkey border, where NGOs have documented cases of animals trapped for days or weeks, bringing back footage of bloodied livestock and cows giving birth beside trucks.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2025
Face bloodied but unbowed, I feel confused amid conflicts of strategy and organization.
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
But she neglected to place them clear of the steps, as we discovered when my husband tripped over them later in the evening while he was taking out the trash, bloodying his knees.
From Salon ● Nov. 22, 2023
You have to applaud Hamrouni, in that moment and others, for literally bloodying the nose of the patriarchy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2023
Then at 5-3, while Raducanu was serving for the match, she slid on the court chasing a ball to her backhand side, bloodying her left knee.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 11, 2021
When I was an undergraduate at the university, the horrors of slavery felt like a vicious yet invisible force stalking the picturesque gardens and bloodying the white colonnades.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 20, 2020
There, among more grain silos and a just-passed threat of a tornado, she twisted her ankle and tumbled onto the road, bloodying her palms and knees.
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
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.
