Synonyms:
leech, bloodsucker, hirudinean
Meaning: carnivorous or bloodsucking aquatic or terrestrial worms typically having a sucker at each end
verb
meaning of the word
Synonyms:
bleed, leech, phlebotomize, phlebotomise
Meaning: draw blood; "In the old days, doctors routinely bled patients as part of the treatment"
Usage examples
The young pike watched attentively the flight of the black leech.
Its close resemblance to the medicinal leech caused the mistake to be overlooked until too late.
I am a good leech, and I will give you the sight of the other eye.' The giant went and he drew the great caldron on the site of the fire.
The poisonous sangsue of Charlottesville may always be distinguished from the medicinal leech by its blackness, and especially by its writhing or vermicular motions, which very nearly resemble those of a snake."
The other visitor was the leech or doctor, a thin, weasand little man, with a kindly, wrinkled face and a gossiping tongue, who, besides binding wounds, bleeding, and leeching, and administering his simple remedies to those who were taken sick in the castle, acted as the Baron's barber.