bloody-mindedadj.

?1545 J. Bale 2nd Pt. Image Both Churches ii. xvi. sig. P.ij As cruellye harted and as bloudye mynded are they yet as euer they were afore.

1594 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 iv. i. 37 Yet let not that make thee bloudie minded.

?a1625 Lawes of Candy v. i, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Iii2/2 She is bloudy minded, And turnes the justice of the Law to rigor.

a1645 W. Browne tr. M. Le Roy Hist. Polexander (1647) v. i. 300 The rest..abandon'd the protection of the holy places and sacred treasure to the ravaging and pillage of those bloudy minded villaines.

1739 D. Hume Treat. Human Nature II. ii. 128 He is bloody-minded, and takes a pleasure in death and destruction.

1790 M. O. Warren Sack of Rome iii. ii. 43 A treacherous, bloody minded prince Stains the imperial court with slaughter'd friends.

1844 C. Dickens Let. 16 Nov. (1977) IV. 220 I could almost turn bloody-minded, and shoot the Parrots of our Island.

1899 J. Hawthorne Spanish Amer. i. i. 159 Cortes..was less bloody-minded and wantonly cruel than many of his peers.

1920 R. Macaulay Potterism ii. i. 58 To make out that all our combatants were full of sweet reasonableness..and all our non-combatants bloody-minded savages.

1939 War Illustr. 14 Oct. p. ii/3 To-day an inoffensive peace-minded majority of the German people are being unwillingly dragged by a bloody-minded minority of their race along the road of doom.

1999 R. Alloway Balaam's Revenge viii. 224 The Assyrian beast..descended on the coalition with bloody-minded vengeance that was systematically brutal.

1935 J. Agate in Sunday Times 17 Mar. 6/2 A man says to a presumed lady, ‘What a bloody-minded woman you are!’

1944 ‘N. Shute’ Pastoral vii. 148 They'll lose this fishing, and they'll all get bloody-minded about that.

1959 Spectator 1 May 604/1 The building unions..have never been as bloody-minded about demarcation as the shipbuilders and others.

1977 Grimsby Evening Tel. 27 May 2/5 Old people had to get moving and be bloody-minded to improve their lot.

2009 Independent 16 Sept. (Life section) 17/5 Christopher Brookmyre has always been—to his credit—a bloody-minded contrarian. He has long relished tweaking the noses of the politically correct on the left, while delivering a sharp kick to those of a conservative bent.