blood feud
7
8.2
- noun
- /blʌd fjuːd/
- NSFW
:
feudo sanguinario
- The constant violence between the two families has escalated into a brutal blood feud that shows no signs of ending.
Examples
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He's asking whether they will cease their blood feud and give up their fight.
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If necessary, some of them are also prepared to take up arms to participate in blood feuds and protect the family honor.
Academic text (2006) -
However, there must be some money to be made in these blood feuds.
Academic text (1992) -
These guys have been fighting blood feuds for generations.
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I'm afraid it's created a blood feud between them.
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The boy Amsterdam has a blood feud with the Butcher.
Fiction book (2002) -
Orgosolo's past has long been tied to blood feuds and crimes.
Academic text (1999) -
Tribes can respond to blood feuds with large parties bent on vengeance.
Academic text (2008) -
Under the Ottoman Empire, kinship-based blood feuds were common.
Academic text (1999) -
Muslim and Western scholarly consensus on the character of pre-Islamic Arabia describes a society plagued by constant blood feuds and intertribal wars.
Academic text (2003)
Synonyms
57
9.5
A long bitter fight between families or groups for revenge that often leads to violence
Antonyms
How Violent
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'blood' (family/lineage) with 'feud' (a prolonged, bitter conflict): it denotes a feud rooted in family blood ties or intergenerational revenge. This is a compositional, cross-linguistically common concept, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would likely infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Blood feud may come from old family fights where one killing led to another; the word blood shows family ties and the spilled blood, and feud means a long fight. That's why it now means 'a long, violent conflict between families or groups'.