blooded

1. 1
   adjective

   Having a particular physiological trait relating to the blood or circulatory system, as expressed by a preceding modifier such as warm- or cold-.

   Warm-blooded creatures maintain a stable internal temperature regardless of their surroundings.

   Most reptiles are cold-blooded, depending on external heat to stay active.

   Note

   In biology the modifier carries the meaning, and the compound is hyphenated, as in warm-blooded mammals. Warm-blooded animals generate their own heat through metabolism, which biologists call endothermic. Cold-blooded, or ectothermic, animals rely on the temperature around them. The temperament sense borrows these same compounds for character.

2. 2
   adjectivefiguratively

   Having a particular temperament or disposition, as indicated by a preceding modifier such as hot- or cold-.

   Their hot-blooded captain charged ahead without waiting for orders.

   The killer's cold-blooded indifference shocked the entire courtroom.

   Note

   The physiological compounds become words for character here. Hot-blooded describes someone passionate and impulsive, and cold-blooded describes someone detached and ruthless. Context decides the reading: a cold-blooded reptile is a plain fact, but a cold-blooded killer is a judgment. In this figurative use cold-blooded carries strong moral condemnation and attaches to deliberate cruelty.

3. 3
   adjectivefiguratively

   Having ancestry of a specified degree from a particular line or group, as indicated by a preceding modifier such as full- or half-.

   His grandmother was full-blooded Cherokee, a heritage the family honored.

   Records listed the horse as half-blooded, sired by a thoroughbred out of a farm mare.

   Note

   These compounds measure descent, as in full-blooded or half-blooded, and they need care. Applied to people, terms that speak of purity or of partial degrees can be offensive, because they treat ancestry as a quantity that can be diluted. With animal pedigrees the fractions are ordinary. For a person, a phrase like "of Irish ancestry" usually says the same thing without the arithmetic.

4. 4
   adjective

   Tested and made experienced through real action, especially in warfare.

   A commander prefers blooded regiments for the assault, since untested recruits may falter.

   By the campaign's end the once-green battalion was thoroughly blooded and steady under bombardment.

   Similarseasoned, experienced, battle-hardened, veteran, hardened

   Oppositeunblooded

   Note

   A soldier's word that sits halfway between adjective and verb. A recruit "has been blooded in combat," and the troops are then called blooded troops. What counts is a first encounter with real fighting, not training or length of service. Its opposite is unblooded. The hunting custom behind it belongs to the verb's past form.

5. 5
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of blood.

   The huntsman blooded the children at the end of their first chase.

   The regiment was blooded during a brief but fierce border clash.

   Note

   One regular spelling serves as both the verb's past tense and its past participle, and it is the same form the adjectives use. The verb can mean to bloody, to let blood in the historical medical sense, or to initiate a novice into hunting or war, traditionally by smearing them with the blood of the first kill they witnessed. That custom lies behind the "battle-tested" meaning.

6. 6
   adjectivederogatoryfiguratively

   Having a particular ancestry, expressed by a preceding modifier and used in a contemptuous or insulting manner.

   The old lord dismissed the merchant as base-blooded, unfit to dine at his table.

   Villagers muttered that the stranger was ill-blooded, blaming his family's bad name.

   Note

   The degree-of-ancestry compounds measure how much descent someone has; these name what kind: blue-blooded, base-blooded, ill-blooded. The tone depends on the modifier. Blue-blooded can be neutral or wry about an aristocrat. Base- and ill- come from an older habit of judging people by their family, and that is where the derogatory edge lies.

7. 7
   adjective

   Descended from ancestors of good stock; having a recognized, high-quality pedigree.

   The auction featured blooded heifers with papers tracing five generations of pedigree.

   He bred blooded stallions whose ancestry guaranteed strong, fast foals.

   Similarpedigree, purebred, pedigreed, thoroughbred

   Note

   This is the one ancestry sense that stands alone, without a modifier: a blooded heifer, blooded stallions. It belongs to livestock breeding, usually of horses and cattle. It marks an animal with a documented superior pedigree and sets it apart from grade or unregistered stock. Applied to people, the same idea needs a compound, such as blue-blooded and its kin.

8. 8
   adjective

   Covered or stained with blood; bleeding.

   The boxer stumbled to his corner with a blooded lip and a swollen eye.

   Medics carried the blooded survivors away from the wreckage.

   Similarbloodied, bloody, bleeding

   Note

   The literal sense and the oldest shape of the word: Middle English bloded, simply blood plus -ed, meaning marked with blood. It suits injuries that are brief and visible, as in Neil Johnston's 2011 BBC Sport report of two Blackburn players "emerging blooded and dazed but otherwise unharmed." It does not take degrees: nothing is more blooded than something else.

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