Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a general intensifier, a euph. synon. for bloody adj. (1)

1890		P. Melon ‘Jack and Jim’ Sporting Times 4 Jan. 3: They searched for the ruddy gold, and delved in the rotten slate.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Jan. 14/3: He’s my ruddy off-side leader, / And a skulking swine at that – / He’s as lazy as an M.L.C., / And as cunning as a rat.
1913		A. Lunn Harrovians 33: You’re sworn at the whole ruddy time.
1914		‘Lance Corporal Cobber’ (Arthur St. John Adcock) Anzac Pilgrim’s Progress (1918) 15: An’ here’s a slap-up party they are givin’ out in France / With ruddy goose-step Prussians for yer partners in the dance.
1923		‘Bartimeus’ ‘In the Dog-Watches’ in Seaways 22: If I was you, Bill [...] I’d wring ’is ruddy neck.
1938		F. Durbridge Send for Paul Temple (1992) 219: You’ve picked a ruddy good time to ’ave a reporter ’angin’ abaht!
1941		G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 89: Come an’ do a Picquet, Boys / Come an’ do a Guard, / You think it’s ruddy easy / But you’ll find it ruddy hard.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 273: Bet you jokers had a ruddy time for yourselves.
1959		A. Upfield Bony and the Mouse 60: We only lost one, and that was chewed up by the ruddy goats.
1960		A. Seymour One Day of the Year (1977) I i: You kids aren’t happy unless you are copying the Yanks [...] singin’ Yank songs, rock and ruddy roll.
1967		J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 10: It would serve him ruddy well right if somebody dobbed him in to the First Lieutenant.
1979		Fantastic Four Annual 18: I’m ruddy positive of it, Captain America!
1984		P. Barker Blow Your House Down 3: He’d always had ruddy great mitts on him, right from him being born.
1999		Guardian Rev. 11 Sept. 4: What is that ruddy noise? It’s giving me earache.
2006		thelondonpaper 4 Sept. 32: Why is it [...] that guys who think it’s perfectly OK to shout out for unasked-for-sexual invitations, can’t take it when – pretty ruddy reasonably – you decline their offer.

2. of a person, unpleasant, unacceptable, crooked.

1930

‘Leslie Charteris’ Enter the Saint 173: The ordinary conventions aren’t expected to apply in our world. Being outside the pale, we’re reckoned to be frankly ruddy.

3. as infix.

1950

T. Hopkinson ‘The Matelot and the Piece of Cake‘ in Penguin New Writing 39 53: Next stop St Bleeding Pancras or Kings Ruddy Cross.