blood diamond

noun

: a diamond sold to fund violent insurrection in the region from which it is mined

The minister [Peter Hain] also called for a boycott of diamonds from rebel sources in Sierra Leone and other countries where they were being used to finance civil wars in other parts of Africa. He said: "Someone going into a jewellery shop should insist that what they are buying is not a blood diamond but a clean diamond."

—Kim Sengupta, The Independent (London), 23 May 2000

The feds have long suspected it has profited from blood diamonds out of Africa …

—Nathan Vardi, Forbes, 14 Aug. 2006

We argued bitterly, Przemek denouncing engagement as a vulgarly commercialized American custom—I think he even made reference to the blood diamonds of Burundi …

—Vogue, February 2006

called also conflict diamond

Word History

First Known Use

1999, in the meaning defined above

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