sanguinary

From Middle English sanguinarie, from Latin sanguinārius.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsæŋɡwɪnəɹi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsæŋɡwɪneɹi/
• Hyphenation: san‧gui‧nar‧y

sanguinary (comparative more sanguinary, superlative most sanguinary)

1. (of an event) Involving bloodshed.

   Synonyms: bloody, gory

   • 1625, Francis Bacon, "Unity in Religion" (Google preview):

     We may not propagate religion by wars, or by sanguinary persecutions to force consciences.

   • 1887, Henry Rider Haggard, Allan Quatermain, Chapter XIII:

     " […] every one of which took its rise from some noble family that succeeded in grasping the purple after a sanguinary struggle."

2. (of a person) Eager to shed blood; bloodthirsty.

   Synonyms: bloodthirsty, bloody-minded, butcherous, slaughterous

   • c. 1730, William Broome:

     Passion […] makes us brutal and sanguinary.

   • 1877, Samuel Green, The Life of Mahomet: Founder of the Religion of Islamism and of the Empire of the Saracens with Notices of the History of Islamism and of Arabia‎, page 126:

     "The defence set up for Mahomet is equally availing for every sanguinary and revengeful tyrant; […] "

3. (of an object) Consisting of, covered with, or similar in appearance to blood.

   Synonyms: bloodsoaked, bloody, gory

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292:

     I was once, I remember, called to a patient who had received a violent contusion in his tibia, by which the exterior cutis was lacerated, so that there was a profuse sanguinary discharge […]

   • 1913, H. G. Wells, Little Wars, Section VI:

     Here is the premeditation, the thrill, the strain of accumulating victory or disaster—and no smashed nor sanguinary bodies […] , that we who are old enough to remember a real modern war know to be the reality of belligerence.

• Not to be confused with sanguine. Sanguine can mean “optimistic”, while sanguinary means “bloodthirsty, gory”.

sanguinary (plural sanguinaries)

1. A bloodthirsty person.
2. The plant common yarrow, or herba sanguinaria (Achillea millefolium).