Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a euph. for bloody adj.; also as intensifier, bleeding hell etc; also as adv.

1858		Furnivall in Athenaeum 24 July 118: We know no such early use of ‘bloody’ in English, but may notice that some costermongers have lately substituted the participle ‘bleeding’ for the adjective [‘bloody’]. ‘My bleeding barrow’ is the latest phrase in vogue .
1866		J. Greenwood Night in a Workhouse 19: ‘Don’t you tell no bleeding lies,’ Kay answered incredulously.
1872		Proc. Old Bailey 6 May 80: I believe the words were ‘She will get her bleeding jaw broke for this’ [...] ‘That bleeding Liz Bassett has rounded on me for this’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Feb. 12/1: A head was found at Cootamundra, no one claimed it, but yet very likely half a dozen will come forward, swear it was the property of a not lost but gone under relative, and sue the bleeding country for damages.
1892		Kipling ‘The Widow’s Party’ in Barrack-Room Ballads (1893) 199: I comes away like a bleeding toff.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 14 Jan. 6/7: My troubles if he broke his bleeding neck.
1900		H. Lawson ‘Joe Wilson’s Courtship’ in Roderick (1972) 547: I’d like to know who put up that bleeding wire!
1903		J. London People of the Abyss 92: W’en they’re in the spike [they] can eat my share o’ skilly as well as their bleedin’ own.
1914		‘Bartimeus’ ‘The Greater Love’ Naval Occasions 235: ’E saved my life – look after ’im. ’E’s a ... ’e’s a – bleedin’ ’ero.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 297: He [...] was overheard by those privileged burghers who happened to be in his immediate entourage to murmur to himself: – God blimey if she ain’t a clinker, that there bleeding tart. [Ibid.] 554: I’ll wring the neck of any fucking bastard says a word against my bleeding fucking king.
1926		‘Ford Madox Ford’ Man Could Stand Up 110: You shut your bleedin’ mouth, you man, or I’ll shove you in the b----y clink!
1932		(con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 47: ‘You pull my blankets off and I’ll break your bleedin’ jaw’.
1936		W. Holtby South Riding (1988) 435: I’ll knock his bleedin’ head off.
c.1943		S .J. Baker Aus. Vulgarisms [t/s] 6: Bloody: blast, blow, blazes, blinking, blank, blanky, ruddy, muddy, bleeding, blessed, blooming, blamed, bally. Blimey and blighter are also related.
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 175: I recognizes who said ‘Hello’ — it were a bleedin’ parrot!
1951		(con. 1941) E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves 55: How many bleeding Huns have you bagged.
1959		A. Sinclair Breaking of Bumbo (1961) 11: I’m your bleeding father, and your bleeding mother, and your bleeding school, and you get twenty-eight bleeding bob a bleeding week, just like the bleeding rest of the bleeding bleeders. Bleed it ...
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 32: I’m not bleedin’ coming all the way here without getting any money for it.
1970		G.F. Newman Sir, You Bastard 208: We were [...] getting treated like bleeding wog brush salesmen.
1978		A. Burgess 1985 (1980) 157: The time for your bleeding childish nonsense is over and done with.
1981		S. Berkoff Decadence in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 8: So bleeding dextrous / wouldn’t you know.
1984		P. Corris ‘Heroin Annie’ in Heroin Annie [e-book] I didn’t know a bleedin’ thing about it but she left me a note saying she had some money and not to worry.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] [A]ltar wine. Six bleedin’ bottles of the stuff.
1999		Indep. 26 Sept. 32: Bleedin’ ’ell, we’ve landed right in clover ’ere, my son.
2000		Guardian 14 Jan. 32: Ow, me bleedin’ head.
2007		Indep. 16 May 30/1: I didn’t come here because I fancy sitting in some bleedin’ cupboard at the BBC.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 238: Knock me down with a bleeding feather if those scurvy bastards didn’t catch wind of the operation.
2017		G. Gilmore Headland [ebook] ‘That’s the bleeding opposite of the problem’.
2021		Breen & Conlon Hitmen 224: ‘Better not leave me stuck with these for the whole bleeding day’.

2. as an infix.

1905		A/ Binstead Mop Fair 136: ‘You follow me, George?’ ‘Abso-pleadin’-lutely, ’Arry.’.
1934		D.L. Sayers Nine Tailors (1984) 250: Mr. Paul Bleeding Taylor and Mr. Batty Thomas! Bells, if you please!
1947		J. Maclaren-Ross Of Love And Hunger 207: ‘That right, mate?’ ‘Too bleeding true.’.
1950		C. Harris Three-Ha’Pence to the Angel 23: Mrs Mop, that’s me, Mrs bleedin’ Mop, the char.
1964		P. Terson Night to Make the Angels Weep (1967) I iii: Tin bleeding whistle.
1982		J. Sullivan ‘A Touch of Glass’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Okla-bleedin’-homa?
1994		(con. 1970s) G. Byrne Pictures in my Head 80: ‘Who?’ ‘Groucho bleedin’ Marx.’.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 436: Whoops, diableedinrrhoea in me bed again.
2009		J. Joso Soothing Music for Stray Cats 11: Yeah, I reckon we’d just turned eighteen the last time we met, thirty-bleedin-five this year.
2010		K. Richards Life 477: Neither Mick nor I sold a lot of records from our solo album,s because they want the Rolling bleeding Stones, right?