Green’s Dictionary of Slang

blooming adj.¹

1. a euph. for bloody adj., e.g. blooming error, a major mistake; also as adv.

1726		Rev. J. Glanvil Sadducismus Triumphatus [Under the head of ‘The Demon of Tedworth’] in Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues I (1890–1904) 244/2: Glanvil makes mention that on one occasion the spirit came into a room panting like a dog, and company coming up, the room was presently filled with a blooming noisome smell .
1806		A. Douglas ‘Hard Times’ Poems in Scot. Dialect 41: O waes me! for our bloomin’ tots! / I ken na how we will, man, / Get hose an’ shoon, an’ sarks an’ coats, / To hap, an’ keep them hale, man.
1834		‘Noses to Faces’ in Flash Minstrel! in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) I 109: No neighbour’s wife there could show / Soch [sic] a blooming handsom [sic] face, sir.
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 153: Farewell my blooming cauliflower!
c.1850		‘Bates’ Farm’ in Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues I (1890) 141/2: I’m up to every little fake, / But in me there’s no harm, / For it was this blooming morning / That I left Old Bates’ Farm.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 222: I worked in the galleries a making casemates for the guns, and blooming hard work it was.
c.1880		‘O’Reilly’ [US army poem] O’Reilly was a soldier, the pride of battery B, / In all the bloomin’ regiment, no better man than he.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Mar. 8/4: The Town Hall ‘can give Charity 50 points out of a hundred, and trounce her blooming head off’.
1887		E.V. Page ‘The Magistrate’ 🎵 It’s nice to be called by him in the dock, / ‘A blooming old geezer’, or perhaps it’s ‘old cock’.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 14 Jan. 2/6: Feed ’im up, sir, or his blooming neck might bust with the drop, and they’ll blame me.
1894		Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 18 Oct. 4/3: I’d jest make the years take close order / ’And my traps in — an’ bloomin’ well jao.
1894		‘The “Ringer” of the Shed’ in N.Z. Observer 3 Feb. 17: Squatters pass me wide enough, / And mutter ‘Bloomin’ shearer that, and blanky, bloomin’ rough.
1898		Binstead & Wells Pink ’Un and Pelican 209: What price the bloominger Blue Book.
1899		H.E. Hamblen Yarn of Bucko Mate 105: After watching them awhile, he said the ‘bloomin’ dagoes’ didn't understand it [i.e. faro] a little bit, and he knew he could bust their bank before daylight.
1899		R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street 37: Mind your own bloomin’ business, or I’ll give yer a shove in the eye.
1900		Marvel 12 Dec. 2: The bloomin’ money’s mine!
1901		T. & G. LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] Come Along, Let’s Make Up 🎵 ‘Straight, you are a blooming “slap-up” little donah’.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 27 Mar. 6/1: ‘Kicker’ became a blooming toff, member of the V.K.C. and owned racehorses.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 103: ‘Hi’ll write to the bloomin’ pypers habout it if you do,’ says I.
1911		Truth (Sydney) 1 Jan. 8/3: ‘Oh, strike me, / But this are a blooming stall’.
1915		Honk! 30 Sept. 1/1: They don’t know what they’re gassin’ of, / No more’n me bloomin ’at.
1916		Rising Sun 25 Dec. 8/1: I ain’t a bloomin’ navvy, and I ain’t a bloomin’ mule, / But I’m just a blessed soldier, what ’as been a bloomin’ fool.
1920		Wash. Times (DC) 10 Sept. 22/7: I say — here comes another one, and dressed so bloomin’ neat.
1922		T.E. Spencer ‘Liza’ Budgeree Ballads 85: I’ll work me bloomin’ eye-balls out to please yer.
1930		E. Waugh Vile Bodies 97: Blooming shame that they’re so religious ... wasting the best years of their lives.
1930		N. Lindsay Redheap (1965) 70: ‘For two bloomin’ pins I’d clear out and leave the dam’ place for good’ .
1939		Rover 18 Feb. 6: But Hopalong isn’t going to spend his life as a blooming totem pole.
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 21 Feb. [synd. cartoon strip] I volunteered for the infantry [and] they make a bloomin’ lancer of me!!
1947		K. Amis letter 30 Jan. in Leader (2000) 111: In this blooming awful weather it is not so bad a deprecation.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 58: There was a bloomin’ spider, / Climbed up a bloomin’ spout.
1963		R. Rive ‘Rain’ in Malan (1994) 10: Don’t you blooming well swear at me.
1977		in K. Gilbert Living Black 144: The mad house where the bloomin’ mental people are, I’ve been there.
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 102: Oh come on Mike and bloody phone you bloomin’ bore.
1998		P. McCabe Breakfast on Pluto 60: Which is a darned blooming cheek when you think about it.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 29: I’m only a bloomin’ spectator.
2011		N. Bird ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ in Pulp Ink [ebook] ‘Blooming poser,’ Rose says.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 41: ‘Bloomin’ ’ell! Oi fink she wants ta turn me inta a lay-dee!’ says the Eliza Doolittle voice in my head.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 778: Coiffure Supreme... at those prices it bloomin’ well should be supreme!

2. as infix.

1901		B. Pain De Omnibus 72: Thenk you kindly, mister bloomin’ ’Ankin.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 10 Feb. 3/5: Anybloominow it’s muggy at time of writing, orribly muggy.
1912		E. Pugh City Of The World 172: ‘Tea! Hoo-bloomin’-ray!’ the children shout back.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Nov. 44/2: ‘Hoo-bloomin’-ray!’ I yells, bustin’ in on the gay throng.
1916		R.D. Doughty diary 13 Nov. 🌐 Huh-bloomin-ray. [...] we’ve just got orders to shift to the other side .
1918		Aussie (France) VIII Oct. 14: A man could multiply instances where bluff failed to work abso-bloomin’-lutely.
1920		‘Sapper’ Bulldog Drummond 76: You’ll consider a thick ear, Mr. Blooming Knowall.
1922		E. Raymond Tell England (1965) 153: Hoo-Ray, hoo-Ray, hoo-blooming-Ray!

In compounds

blooming shoot (n.) (also blooming show) [whole bang shoot n.]

absolutely everything, ‘the lot’.

1893		N.H. Kennard Diogenes’ Sandals 9: I am dead-sick of the whole blooming show.
1909		(ref. to 1880) J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 222/1: Shoot, Blooming (Common London, 1880). Cursed crowd. Here’s bad luck to the whole blooming shoot. – Cutting.

In phrases

blooming six foot of tripe (n.) [pun on tripe n.¹ /tripe n.² ]

a large policeman.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 250/1: Tripe, Blooming six foot o’ (Street, 1880). A giant policeman. ‘Yer blooming six foot o’ tripe, how’s yer fat old head?’ – attack upon a tall policeman.

In exclamations