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RUDDY
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Irregular inflected forms: ruddier , ruddiest
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Of a color at the end of the color spectrum (next to orange); resembling the color of blood or cherries or tomatoes or rubies
Synonyms:
blood-red; carmine; cerise; cherry; cherry-red; crimson; red; reddish; ruby; ruby-red; ruddy; scarlet
Classified under:
Similar:
chromatic (being or having or characterized by hue)
Derivation:
ruddiness (a healthy reddish complexion)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Inclined to a healthy reddish color often associated with outdoor life
Example:
a fresh and sanguine complexion
Synonyms:
florid; rubicund; ruddy; sanguine
Classified under:
Similar:
healthy (having or indicating good health in body or mind; free from infirmity or disease)
Derivation:
ruddiness (a healthy reddish complexion)
Context examples:
The man ruddy and yellow-haired, stood leaning upon the spade wherewith he had been at work upon the garden patch.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
They were all on the one stratum, hollowed out of some soft rock which lay between the volcanic basalt forming the ruddy cliffs above them, and the hard granite which formed their base.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I knew the swaying round forms, the bright hard eyes, the white teeth, the ruddy colour, the voluptuous lips.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
His round, ruddy face was naturally full of cheeriness, but the corners of his mouth seemed to me to be pulled down in a half-comical distress.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It was sufficiently late in the year for the orchards to be ruddy with ripe apples; and in a few places the hop-pickers were already at work.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
And now I can recall the picture of the grey old house of God rising calm before me, of a rook wheeling round the steeple, of a ruddy morning sky beyond.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Gold and purple clouds lay on the hilltops, and rising high into the ruddy light were silvery white peaks that shone like the airy spires of some Celestial City.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
A heavy step was heard upon the stairs, and an instant later there entered a tall, ruddy, clean-shaven gentleman, whose clear eyes and florid cheeks told of a life led far from the fogs of Baker Street.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The setting sun cast a ruddy glare upon his burnished arms, and sent his long black shadow streaming behind him up the level clearing.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Along upon our left the neighboring caves each threw out its ruddy cheery firelight into the gloom.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
