bloody back

English

Alternative forms
  • bloody-back

Etymology

From the military practice of flogging as discipline.

Noun

bloody back (plural bloody backs)

  1. (slang, archaic, derogatory) A soldier.
    • 1912, Ralph Davol, Two Men of Taunton: In the Course of Human Events, 1731-1829, page 214:
      […] how the troops came marching out for evening exercise under Captain Preston; how pedestrians and street urchins taunted them, shouting "Lobsters," "Bloody-backs," and flinging snow-balls, turnips, […]
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