• (British, America) IPA: /ˈɹʌdi/

ruddy (comparative ruddier, superlative ruddiest)

1. Reddish in color, especially of the face, fire, or sky.
2. (British, Australian, slang, not comparable) A mild intensifier, expressing irritation.
   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “XVIII and XX”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855 ↗:

     “Of all the damn silly fatheaded things!” she vociferated, if that's the word. “With a million ruddy names to choose from, these ruddy Creams call one ruddy son Wilbert and the other ruddy son Wilfred, and both these ruddy sons are known as Willie. Just going out of their way to mislead the innocent bystander. You'd think people would have more consideration.”

• (reddish in color) rosy
• (intensifier) bally, bleeding, blimming, bloody, blooming
• See also Thesaurus:damned

• French: rougeâtre
• German: rot, rötlich
• Italian: rubicondo
• Portuguese: avermelhado
• Russian: краснова́тый
• Spanish: rubicundo, rubicunda

• German: verdammt, verflixt
• Russian: чёртов

ruddy (not comparable)

1. (British, slang) A mild intensifier, expressing irritation.

ruddy (plural ruddies)

1. (informal) A ruddy duck.
2. (informal) A ruddy ground dove.
   • 1987, Jürgen Nicolai, A Complete Introduction to Finches, Tfh Publications Incorporated (ISBN 9780866222938), page 89:

     Ground doves — two ruddies are shown here — are so called because they feed on the ground.

   • 1994, Birding, page 298:

     Understandably, birders in the U.S. are advised to carefully distinguish Ruddies from the usually more-expected Common Ground-Doves [...]. (Brightly-colored, pinkish adult male Common Ground-Doves have been misidentified as male Ruddies on several occasions, however.) Unless the fortunate birder happens upon a Ruddy Ground-Dove amongst a flock of sparrows, it will often be necessary to sort through innumerable Inca Doves.

   • 2005, Richard Cachor Taylor, A Birder's Guide to Southeastern Arizona, page 237:

     Common Ground-Dove — Fairly common permanent resident of better-watered valleys at lower elevations. Avoids town [...] Ironically, Ruddies often ignore the little flocks of closely related Commons, and choose to associate with Inca Doves.

   • 2008, Jim Burns, Jim Burns' Arizona Birds: From the Backyard to the Backwoods, University of Arizona Press (ISBN 9780816526444), page 28:

     Out-of-state birders seeking Ruddy Ground Doves should be aware of two things. Ruddies associate much more frequently with Inca Doves than with Common Ground Doves. In fact, in eleven personal sightings of this species in Arizona, I have never seen a Ruddy with a Common nor has anyone else I know. [...] Perhaps this is a slow invasion, and forty years hence Ruddies will be so common ...

ruddy (ruddies, present participle ruddying; past and past participle ruddied)

1. (transitive) To make reddish in colour.

   The sunset ruddied our faces.

1. Surname