/ˈɹʌdi/
OriginFrom Middle English ruddy, rody, rudi, from Old English rudiġ (“reddish; ruddy”), from rudu (“redness”), equivalent to rud (“redness”) + -y. Compare Icelandic roði (“redness”).
The British slang sense expressing irritation is presumably a euphemism for bloody.
- Reddish in color, especially of the face, fire, or sky.
“Drystone walls, farm buildings and stone cottages, roofed with ruddy tiles, line the way and blend gently into the surrounding countryside.”
“A silvery cloud drifted over the mountains that surrounded him, its edges glowing with ruddy light cast from the harvest moon cradled between two peaks.”
“Frank, who is narrow and ruddy, and who tended to wear a shirt and tie with a cherry-red beanie pulled low over one ear, swapped his white butcher’s coat for a puffer jacket, and led me outside”
- Robust and vigorous, like a person with a red complexion (as compared to a pale one).
- Australia, British, not-comparable, slangA mild intensifier, expressing irritation.
“"Sister?" I inquired. "She ain't 'ere," a man's voice said. "What's more," it went on, "she ain't been 'ere for ruddy hours, neither. Can't you pull them ruddy curtains, mate, and let's 'ave some flip”
““Of all the damn silly fatheaded things!” she vociferated, if that's the word. “With a million ruddy names to choose from, these ruddy Creams call one ruddy son Wilbert and the other ruddy son Wilfred”
“Michael, you have been sitting on your butt for the last two hours! Why didn't you mow the ruddy lawn?!!”
- British, not-comparable, slangA mild intensifier, expressing irritation.
““So, you made quite a splash on Question Time, my homeless pal,” he continued. “Ruddy hilarious. Ha ha ha!””
“'You're not ruddy going anywhere,' he said, slamming the door behind him.”
- informalA ruddy duck.
“In winter, snow geese land at West Pond, a Robert Moses legacy that ought to be called Duck Soup: at this time of year look for ruddies, greater scaups, Northern pintails, American widgeons and gadwal”
- informalA ruddy ground dove.
“Ground doves — two ruddies are shown here — are so called because they feed on the ground.”
“Understandably, birders in the U.S. are advised to carefully distinguish Ruddies from the usually more-expected Common Ground-Doves [...]. (Brightly-colored, pinkish adult male Common Ground-Doves hav”
“Common Ground-Dove — Fairly common permanent resident of better-watered valleys at lower elevations. Avoids town [...] Ironically, Ruddies often ignore the little flocks of closely related Commons, an”
- transitiveTo make reddish in colour.
“The sunset ruddied our faces.”
“It ruddied all the copse-wood glen”
Formsruddier(comparative) · ruddiest(superlative) · ruddies(plural) · ruddies(present, singular, third-person) · ruddying(participle, present) · ruddied(participle, past) · ruddied(past)