RUDDINESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ruddiness mean? 

• RUDDINESS (noun)
  The noun RUDDINESS has 1 sense:

1. a healthy reddish complexion

  Familiarity information: RUDDINESS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RUDDINESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A healthy reddish complexion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

rosiness; ruddiness

Hypernyms ("ruddiness" is a kind of...):

complexion; skin color; skin colour (the coloring of a person's face)

Derivation:

ruddy (of a color at the end of the color spectrum (next to orange); resembling the color of blood or cherries or tomatoes or rubies)

ruddy (inclined to a healthy reddish color often associated with outdoor life)

 Context examples 

The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It was not that he looked many years older, though still dressed with the old scrupulous cleanliness; or that there was an unwholesome ruddiness upon his face; or that his eyes were full and bloodshot; or that there was a nervous trembling in his hand, the cause of which I knew, and had for some years seen at work.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)