red-blooded

English

Adjective

red-blooded (not comparable)

1. (figuratively) Having a healthy vigor and spirit.

   Synonyms: hearty, robust, vigorous, macho, red-blood

   • 2021 July 20, Robinson Meyer, “Carbon Tax, Beloved Policy to Fix Climate Change, Is Dead at 47”, in The Atlantic‎^[1]:

     The carbon tax won acclaim from self-described socialists and red-blooded libertarians, Democratic senators and Republican secretaries of state, Elon Musk and Janet Yellen.

2. (figuratively) Having an active sex drive; lustful.

   Synonyms: virile, concupiscent

   • 2017 November 11, Patrick Lion, “Sex worker who slept with more than 10,000 men answers questions women never dare to ask”, in The Mirror‎^[2]:

     As one of my clients put it, 'I love my wife so much I'm so in love with her but we don't have sex, I only have sex three times a year and I'm a red blooded man I can't deal with that'.

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see red,‎ blooded.
   • 2019 December 4, David Pagel, “Review: A photographer’s portraits of Iceland, in all of its epic, impossible beauty”, in Los Angeles Times‎^[3]:

     In five tightly cropped close-ups, terra firma appears to be roiling, more like the surface of a stormy sea than anything you’d want to build a house on. Melted ice cream comes to mind, as does the flesh of red-blooded animals.

Usage notes

• In the figurative sense, typically used to describe a heterosexual man.

Derived terms

• red-bloodedness