Doreen Tovey
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In Old English, there were two related words referring to red coloring: rēad and rudu. Rēad evolved into our present-day red. Rudu evolved into rud (a word now encountered only in dialect or archaic usage) and ruddy. Most often, ruddy is applied to the face when it has the red glow of good health or is red from a suffusion of blood from exercise or excitement. It is also used in the names of some birds, such as the American ruddy duck. In British English, ruddy is also used as a colorful euphemism for the sometimes offensive intensive bloody, as 20th-century English writer Sir Kingsley Amis illustrates in The Riverside Villas Murder: "Ruddy marvelous, the way these coppers' minds work.... I take a swing at Chris Inman in public means I probably done him in."
Examples of ruddy in a Sentence
Dan Perry, Newsweek, 19 Feb. 2025
No matter which big name is delivering them, a couple of ruddy Hulk smashes just aren’t enough.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 14 Feb. 2025
The carcasses appear to include an orange-brown ruddy shelduck, which is protected under Italian law.
—Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN, 5 Feb. 2025
His downcast eyes betray contemplation, and his face is marked by ruddy coloring and deep smile lines.
—Sonja Anderson, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Ruddy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ruddy. Accessed 27 Feb. 2025.
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Medical Definition
ruddy
adjective
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