Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Inclined to a healthy rosiness; ruddy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Inclining to redness; ruddy; blood-red: said especially of the face; in botany, turning rosy-red.
  • Synonyms Rosy, etc. See ruddy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Inclining to redness; ruddy; red.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Ruddy.
  • adjective Possessing a red complexion.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective inclined to a healthy reddish color often associated with outdoor life

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin rubicundus; see reudh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin rubicundus, from rubere 'be red'.

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Examples

  • The expression of his countenance would have been bluff but for a certain sinister glance, and his complexion might have been called rubicund but for a considerable tinge of bilious yellow.

    Lavengro 2004

  • The expression of his countenance would have been bluff but for a certain sinister glance, and his complexion might have been called rubicund but for a considerable tinge of bilious yellow.

    Lavengro; the Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest George Henry Borrow 1842

  • The expression of his countenance would have been bluff but for a certain sinister glance, and his complexion might have been called rubicund but for a considerable tinge of bilious yellow.

    Lavengro the Scholar - the Gypsy - the Priest George Henry Borrow 1842

  • The expression of his countenance would have been bluff but for a certain sinister glance, and his complexion might have been called rubicund but for a considerable tinge of bilious yellow.

    Lavengro The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest George Henry Borrow 1842

  • The expression of his countenance would have been bluff but for a certain sinister glance, and his complexion might have been called rubicund but for a considerable tinge of bilious yellow.

    Lavengro The Scholar - The Gypsy - The Priest, Vol. 1 (of 2) George Henry Borrow 1842

  • Reverend Jenkins was tall, rubicund, big-boned yet fragile-looking, with a full shock of longish white hair topping the bill.

    Shortcut Man P. G. Sturges 2011

  • Reverend Jenkins was tall, rubicund, big-boned yet fragile-looking, with a full shock of longish white hair topping the bill.

    Shortcut Man P. G. Sturges 2011

  • It sees the countryside as a large playground-museum, filled with red-faced Poujadiste farmers, cruel fox-hunting squires and rubicund peasants, over which its supporters are encouraged to roam at will.

    Archive 2008-02-10 2008

  • It sees the countryside as a large playground-museum, filled with red-faced Poujadiste farmers, cruel fox-hunting squires and rubicund peasants, over which its supporters are encouraged to roam at will.

    Labour Stuffs the Countryside 2008

  • Theobald Tanqueray Thompkinson, leaning unsteadily forwards, jocular and rotund; rubicund, reckless and implausibly optimistic.

    Pigeon Post 2010

Comments

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  • My face on niacin.

    January 4, 2008

  • Last sun ripes each one, though rubicund, black

    then each rots.

    - Peter Reading, Raspberrying, from For the Municipality's Elderly, 1974

    June 22, 2008