adj. (common).—An expletive of long standing: cf. Shakespeare’s ‘bleeding men,’ etc. See BLOODY: there is little enough, sanguinary, either literally or metaphorically about much that is described as BLEEDING. It sounds big and weighty to those who use it, and that suffices.
1877. BESANT and RICE, This Son of Vulcan, II., xxiii. ‘When he isn’t up to one dodge he is up to another. You make no BLEEDING error.’
