bloodied

USAGE SUMMARY

'bloodied' is a correct word and is commonly used in written English.
It is an adjective that means to be covered in blood or to have blood on something. Example: The soldier emerged from the battle, his face bloodied and his clothes torn. The word 'bloodied' can also be used in a figurative sense to describe something that has been damaged or injured. Example: The team fought hard on the field, but they were ultimately bloodied by their opponents.

✓ Grammatically correct

News & Media

Sport

Finance

Politics

Human-verified examples from authoritative sources

Exact Expressions

60 human-written examples

As the van slows down beside a crowd of people, I glimpse a bloodied body in the dusty street.

The Guardian - Travel

Bewildered secret service agent Matt Dillon wakes up bloodied and bruised in a small town in Idaho, where the requisite secrets lurk just beneath the picture-perfect surface.

The Guardian - TV & Radio

But just the other day, for instance, I got a tweet that said, "May your bloodied head rest on the edge of an Isis blade".

The Guardian

Images of tortured, bloodied and bruised bodies go on display in the glittering halls of the UN in New York for the next 10 days, to remind staff "not to look away" from the humanitarian crisis in Syria.

The Guardian

We chat with the others and collect tales of how everyone is getting on: someone claims to have seen a porcupine; another has fallen and broken their arm; a murder squad policeman has fainted at the sight of a bloodied blister.

The Guardian - Travel

You could have stripped the man of his endoskeleton and pulverised skin and organs until he was little more than a twitching, bloodied, barely verbal blob on the ground and he still would have shot his hand (or whatever remained of it) up and said to Clarke, "No, I'm right to bowl".

The Guardian - Sport

Artaud's language – semi-coherent, as though he were inventing it from scratch – his alienation from society (from the human race even), his savage portraits, more like the bloodied ghosts of Banquo and his successors, and, perhaps most of all, the indeterminate sex of the figures he scratched on to paper, became her lodestar.

The Guardian - Arts

A "female" helicopter/she-wolf feeds human figures blood from teats dangling from its undercarriage; a "male" bomb distributes death from its two heads and its grotesque armoury of proliferating penises; genderless victims are represented in the form of bloodied rib-bones with screaming faces.

The Guardian - Arts

Never a man to downplay a drama, he afterwards treasured his bloodied Marks & Spencer shirt and used the incident to focus the eyes of the world on the injustices Catholics in the north of Ireland had suffered since partition in 1921.

The Guardian

Mitchell floored the champion in the fifth round but took some heavy punches either side of that and, by the 10th, was battered, bloodied and with his left eye practically closed shut from severe swelling.

The Guardian - Sport

The crowds were dispersed by baton-wielding riot police, leaving several protesters bloodied.

The Guardian

Expert writing Tips

Best practice

Employ the word figuratively to describe institutions, such as banks or political parties, that have survived a period of intense crisis but are significantly weakened.

Common error

Avoid using "bloodied" as a simple attributive adjective meaning 'containing blood' (e.g., "bloodied steak" is incorrect). "Bloodied" implies that an action has occurred—someone or something has been made bloody through conflict or injury. For a steak or a natural state, use "bloody".

Linguistic Context

In English, "bloodied" primarily functions as an adjective or the past participle of the verb "bloody". According to Ludwig AI and the provided examples, it is frequently used to describe a state resulting from a physical or metaphorical conflict. It often appears in a list of adjectives, such as "battered, "bloodied" and bruised", to emphasize the severity of a situation.

Expression frequency: Very common

Frequent in

News & Media

80%

Sport

10%

Finance

5%

Less common in

Fiction & Literature

3%

Academia

1%

Wiki

1%

Ludwig's WRAP-UP

In conclusion, "bloodied" is a powerful and versatile word that bridges the gap between literal physical description and metaphorical analysis. Ludwig AI confirms its status as a correct and highly effective term, especially within News & Media contexts. Whether describing a protester in a dusty street or a bank reeling from a financial shortfall, "bloodied" conveys a history of conflict and resilience. It is more than just a synonym for "bloody"; it implies an ordeal survived, making it a favorite for writers who wish to add depth and narrative weight to their descriptions of struggle.

More alternative expressions

Phrases that express similar concepts, ordered by semantic similarity:

blood-stained

Focuses specifically on the marks left on clothing or surfaces rather than the state of a person

battered

Emphasizes the physical beating or repeated strikes rather than just the resulting blood

wounded

A more formal and general term for physical injury

bruised

Suggests a less severe injury often used alongside "bloodied" to show a range of trauma

gory

More descriptive and evocative of excessive blood, often used in a literary or cinematic sense

beaten

Commonly used for metaphorical defeats in politics or finance

injured

The most neutral and clinical alternative for physical harm

scathed

Typically used in the negative (unscathed), but implies being marked by conflict

sanguinary

A very formal and rare academic term meaning involving or causing much bloodshed

damaged

Used when referring to inanimate objects or organizations that have suffered a setback

FAQs

How do I use "bloodied" in a sentence?

You can use it to describe someone who has just emerged from a fight, such as "the boxer left the ring with a "bloodied nose"". It also works for figurative setbacks, like "the company was "bloodied by the crisis"".

What is the difference between "bloody" and "bloodied"?

"Bloody" is often a descriptive adjective or an intensifier, while "bloodied" is the past participle of the verb 'to bloody', suggesting that an event or struggle caused the state. You might say someone has a "bloody face", but "bloodied" emphasizes they were "injured" during a specific event.

Can "bloodied" be used in business writing?

Yes, it is frequently used in high-level financial journalism to describe entities that have suffered losses, such as "bloodied borrowers" or banks.

What are some synonyms for "bloodied"?

Depending on your context, you could use "blood-stained", "wounded", or "battered".