bloodier; bloodiest
1
a
: containing or made up of blood
b
: of or contained in the blood
2
: smeared or stained with blood
3
a
: accompanied by or involving bloodshed
especially
: marked by great slaughter
a bloody battle
b
: marked by fierce conflict
In the end the litigation proved exhaustive and bloody but successful.—
David Wild
David Wild5
: bloodred
6
British, informal + sometimes offensive
: damned
—often used as an intensive
acting like a bloody fool
British, informal + sometimes offensive
—used as an intensive
a bloody awful mistake
had a bloody good time
Examples of bloody in a Sentence
Adjective
He hit me and gave me a bloody nose.
after the fight, her shirt was all bloody
Verb
He hit me and bloodied my nose.
the politician's reputation was permanently bloodied by the rumors of corruption
Recent Examples on the Web
Karen Kucher, sandiegouniontribune.com, 19 July 2017
Photos of the man in a hospital bed with a bloody mouth were also posted.
—Jonece Starr Dunigan, AL.com, 14 July 2017
Devlina Sarkar, MSNBC Newsweek, 13 July 2025
On the day she was born in 2009, her mother allegedly drowned her inside their Union City apartment, then left her body in a dumpster, stuck to a Costco receipt, bloodied pantyhose and random trash, for a man searching for recyclables to find.
—Nate Gartrell, Mercury News, 2 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for bloody
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Adjective
After watching in terror as a man violently attacked a police officer in an El Cajon fast-food restaurant, Iesha Booker checked for a pulse on the bloody, unconscious officer and yelled into the radio on his belt.
—Karen Kucher, sandiegouniontribune.com, 19 July 2017
Photos of the man in a hospital bed with a bloody mouth were also posted.
—Jonece Starr Dunigan, AL.com, 14 July 2017
Verb
Thankfully, unlike last year, no one's been bloodied this time around.
—Devlina Sarkar, MSNBC Newsweek, 13 July 2025
On the day she was born in 2009, her mother allegedly drowned her inside their Union City apartment, then left her body in a dumpster, stuck to a Costco receipt, bloodied pantyhose and random trash, for a man searching for recyclables to find.
—Nate Gartrell, Mercury News, 2 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for bloody
Cite this Entry
“Bloody.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bloody. Accessed 23 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share