bloody

bloody, sanguinary, sanguine, sanguineous, gory are comparable when they mean affected by or involving the shedding of blood.

Bloody may be used in place of any of the succeeding words, but it specifically and distinctively applies to that which is covered with blood or is actually or apparently made up of blood

{

a bloody knife

}

{

bloody hands

}

{

a bloody discharge from a wound

}

Sanguinary usually and bloody also when a simpler, more forcible word is desired apply to something attended by or someone bent upon bloodshed

{

a sanguinary conflict

}

{

sanguinary deeds

}

{

my thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth— Shak.

}

{

a bloody battle

}

Sanguine and sanguineous are used chiefly in a literary context in place of either of the preceding words or in specifically implying an association with bleeding or bloodthirstiness or the color of blood

{

to find his way through the sanguine labyrinth of passion through which he was wandering— Wilde

}

{

his passion, cruel grown, took on a hue fierce and sanguineous— Keats

}

Gory sometimes suggests clotted blood, but more often it suggests a profusion of blood that testifies to slaughter

{

a gory fight

}

{

never shake thy gory locks at me— Shak.

}