bloody back
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From the military practice of flogging as discipline.
Noun
[edit]bloody back (plural bloody backs)
- (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, […]