ruddy
adjective
Doreen Tovey 
Did you know?
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."
Synonyms
- blooming
- florid
- flush
- full-blooded
- glowing
- red
- rosy
- rubicund
- sanguine
Example Sentences
Jennifer Aldrich, Better Homes & Gardens, 15 Oct. 2021 In Hanapepe, the bottom layer turns a ruddy color like the soil. Malia Wollan, New York Times, 15 Dec. 2020 The man leaned his bulky body back in his seat and his ruddy face, surrounded by a white beard, took on the faraway look the woman knew well. Polly Campbell, Cincinnati.com, 16 June 2020 After being harvested, chili peppers are sun-dried until the long, tapering pods, some five or six inches in length, turn a rich, ruddy crimson color and take on a smooth, leathery sheen. Jeff Koehler, sacbee, 22 Aug. 2017 The large lagoons at the facility attract a wide variety of waterfowl species, including up to 12,000 ruddy ducks and over 5,000 northern shovelers during spring and fall migration. Michigan Wildlife Council, Detroit Free Press, 21 Aug. 2017 Mockett, with his ruddy face and thunderous laugh, was hardly inconspicuous. Bloomberg.com, 27 July 2017 Who hasn't been drawn to a big plump strawberry or a ruddy round tomato or a crisp green leaf of lettuce? Bill Daley, chicagotribune.com, 25 July 2017 How does Greene inflect her descriptions of nature—from the humming cicadas and pine trees to the murky caves and ruddy clay of the earth—to tell the troubled history of the region’s landscape?2. Patricia Shannon, Southern Living, 11 July 2017 See More Word History
Middle English rody, rudy, going back to Old English rudi (attested once), from rudu "red color, redness" (going back to a Germanic base *ruđ-, zero-grade ablaut of *rauđa- "red," whence also Old Icelandic roði "redness") + -i, -ig -y entry 1 — more at red entry 1
13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Phrases Containing ruddy
Kids Definition
ruddy
adjective
Medical Definition
ruddy
adjective
ruddiness
noun
Synonyms & Similar Words
- redness
- rosiness
- reddishness
- glow
- pinkness
- brightness
- brilliance
- blush
- sanguineness
- flush
- bloom
- color
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- paleness
- pallor
- whiteness
- pastiness
- sallowness
- wanness
- greenness
- pallidness
- greenishness
- in default
- in default of
- in defeat
- in defense of
- in defense of (something or someone)
- in defense of something or someone
- in deference to
- in defiance of
- in demand
- in denial
- in descending order
- in despite of
- in detail
- in detention
- in development
- in digs
- in dire straits
- in disfavor
- in disguise
- in dispute
- in disrepute
- in distress
- in dollars
- in doubt
- in drag