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leech

   Also found in: Medical, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.02 sec.
leech 1  (lch)
n.
1. Any of various chiefly aquatic bloodsucking or carnivorous annelid worms of the class Hirudinea, of which one species (Hirudo medicinalis) was formerly used by physicians to bleed patients and is now sometimes used as a temporary aid to circulation during surgical reattachment of a body part.
2. One that preys on or clings to another; a parasite.
3. Archaic A physician.
v. leeched, leech·ing, leech·es
v.tr.
1. To bleed with leeches.
2. To drain the essence or exhaust the resources of.
v.intr.
To attach oneself to another in the manner of a leech.

[Middle English leche, physician, leech, from Old English lce; see leg- in Indo-European roots.]

leech
Noun
1. a worm which has a sucker at each end of the body and feeds on the blood or tissues of other animals
2. a person who lives off another person; parasite [Old English lǣce]
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun1.leechleech - carnivorous or bloodsucking aquatic or terrestrial worms typically having a sucker at each end
annelid, annelid worm, segmented worm - worms with cylindrical bodies segmented both internally and externally
class Hirudinea, Hirudinea - hermaphroditic aquatic or terrestrial or parasitic annelids
Hirudo medicinalis, medicinal leech - large European freshwater leech formerly used for bloodletting
horseleech - any of several large freshwater leeches
2.leech - a follower who hangs around a host (without benefit to the host) in hope of gain or advantage
follower - a person who accepts the leadership of another
Verb1.leech - draw blood; "In the old days, doctors routinely bled patients as part of the treatment"
practice of medicine, medicine - the learned profession that is mastered by graduate training in a medical school and that is devoted to preventing or alleviating or curing diseases and injuries; "he studied medicine at Harvard"
care for, treat - provide treatment for; "The doctor treated my broken leg"; "The nurses cared for the bomb victims"; "The patient must be treated right away or she will die"; "Treat the infection with antibiotics"

leech
noun parasite, hanger-on, sycophant, freeloader (slang) sponger (informal) ligger (slang) bloodsucker (informal) quandong Austral. (slang)
Translations
Spanish leech [liːtʃ] nsanguijuela
French leech [liːtʃ] nsangsue f
German leech [liːtʃ] nBlutegel m (fig); Blutsauger m
Italian leech [liːtʃ] nsanguisuga

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For the sake of the leech did I lie here by this swamp, like a fisher, and already had mine outstretched arm been bitten ten times, when there biteth a still finer leech at my blood, Zarathustra himself!
Thus it came that, on the morning of the fourth day, he called Little John to him, and told him that he could not shake the fever from him, and that he would go to his cousin, the prioress of the nunnery near Kirklees, in Yorkshire, who was a skillful leech, and he would have her open a vein in his arm and take a little blood from him, for the bettering of his health.
Right so the king and Merlin departed, and went until an hermit that was a good man and a great leech.
 
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