bloodied

1. 1
   adjective

   Covered in blood or marked with bloodstains.

   Rescue workers pulled a bloodied but conscious driver from the wreck.

   Detectives found a bloodied knife hidden under the floorboards.

   Similarbloody, bloodstained, bleeding

   Note

   The adjective comes from bloody plus -ed, so it keeps a trace of something that happened: a bloodied knife has been used, a bloodied driver has been hurt. It grades like an ordinary adjective, with more bloodied and most bloodied, as in the most bloodied of the survivors.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of bloody.

   The scandal bloodied the senator's reelection campaign just weeks before the vote.

   The fighter was bloodied in the first round but kept moving forward.

   Note

   One spelling serves as both simple past (the scandal bloodied the campaign) and past participle (the fighter was bloodied), with the y of bloody turning to i before -ed. Every use takes an object, and the meaning runs from literal staining, through drawing an opponent's blood in a fight, to doing visible harm to a rival's cause.

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