blood

noun

the fluid that circulates in the principal vascular system of human beings and other vertebrates, in humans consisting of plasma in which the red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets are suspended.

the vital principle; life: The excitement had got into the very blood of the nation.

a person or group regarded as a source of energy, vitality, or vigor: It's time we got some new blood in this company.

one of the four elemental bodily humors of medieval physiology, regarded as causing cheerfulness.

bloodshed; gore; slaughter; murder: to avenge the blood of his father.

the juice or sap of plants: the blood of the grape.

temperament; state of mind: a person of hot blood.

physical nature of human beings: the frailty of our blood.

Chiefly British. a high-spirited dandy; an adventuresome youth: the young bloods of Cambridge.

10.

a profligate or rake.

11.

physical and cultural extraction: It was a trait that seemed to be in their blood.

12.

royal extraction: a prince of the blood.

13.

descent from a common ancestor; ancestry; lineage: related by blood.

14.

recorded and respected ancestry; purebred breeding.

15.

Slang. a black person, especially a man.

Relevant Questions

What Is In Blood?

Who Founded The Bloods?

Who Are The Bloods?

Who Discovered Blood Pla...

Who Invented Blood Trans...

What Are Bloods?

What Is In Blood?

Who Invented Blood Trans...

Who Are The Bloods?

Who Founded The Bloods?

verb (used with object)

16.

Hunting. to give (hounds) a first sight or taste of blood. Compare flesh ( def 14 ).

17.

to stain with blood.

00:10

Blood is always a great word to know.

So is blood plasma. Does it mean:

reddish bile pigment resulting from degradation of heme by reticuloendothelial cells in the liver

plasma or liquid portion of human blood

LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

Idioms

18.

get/have one's blood up, to become or be enraged or impassioned: Injustice of any sort always gets my blood up.

19.

have someone's blood on one's head/hands, to be to blame for someone's affliction or death: Though a criminal, he had no blood on his hands.

20.

in cold blood, deliberately; ruthlessly: The dictator, in cold blood, ordered the execution of all his political enemies.

21.

make one's blood boil, to inspire resentment, anger, or indignation: Such carelessness makes my blood boil.

22.

make one's blood run cold, to fill with terror; frighten: The dark, deserted street in that unfamiliar neighborhood made her blood run cold.

23.

sweat blood. sweat ( def 37 ).

24.

taste blood, to experience a new sensation, usually a violent or destructive one, and acquire an appetite for it: Once the team had tasted blood, there was no preventing them from winning by a wide margin.

Origin:
before 1000; Middle English blo(o)d, Old English blōd; cognate with Old Frisian, Old Saxon blōd, Old High German bluot (German Blut), Old Norse blōth, Gothic bloth < Germanic *blōdaⁿ, an old neuter adj. meaning “spurting” that accompanied the lost IE noun *HesHr (> Hittite eshar) blood; akin to bloom¹; for the meaning cf. spurt and sprout

Related forms

blood·like, adjective

Can be confused: bled, bleed, blood.

Synonyms
13. kinship, stock, family.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source

Link To blood

Collins

World English Dictionary

blood (blʌd)

—n
1.	a reddish fluid in vertebrates that is pumped by the heart through the arteries and veins, supplies tissues with nutrients, oxygen, etc, and removes waste products. It consists of a fluid (see blood plasma) containing cells (erythrocytes, leucocytes, and platelets)Related: haemal, haematic, sanguineous
2.	a similar fluid in such invertebrates as annelids and arthropods
3.	bloodshed, esp when resulting in murder
4.	the guilt or responsibility for killing or injuring (esp in the phrase to have blood on one's handsorhead)
5.	life itself; lifeblood
6.	relationship through being of the same family, race, or kind; kinship
7.	informal blood, sweat and tears hard work and concentrated effort
8.	flesh and blood
	a. near kindred or kinship, esp that between a parent and child
	b. human nature (esp in the phrase it's more than flesh and blood can stand)
9.	ethnic or national descent: of Spanish blood
10.	in one's blood as a natural or inherited characteristic or talent
11.	the blood royal or noble descent: a prince of the blood
12.	temperament; disposition; temper
13.	a. good or pure breeding; pedigree
	b. (as modifier): blood horses
14.	people viewed as members of a group, esp as an invigorating force (in the phrases new blood, young blood)
15.	rare chiefly (Brit) a dashing young man; dandy; rake
16.	the sensual or carnal nature of man
17.	obsolete See humour one of the four bodily humours
18.	bad blood hatred; ill feeling
19.	blood is thicker than water family duties and loyalty outweigh other ties
20.	have one's blood up, get one's blood up to be or cause to be angry or inflamed
21.	in cold blood showing no passion; deliberately; ruthlessly
22.	make one's blood boil to cause to be angry or indignant
23.	make one's blood run cold to fill with horror

—vb
24.	hunting to cause (young hounds) to taste the blood of a freshly killed quarry and so become keen to hunt
25.	hunting to smear the cheeks or forehead of (a person) with the blood of the kill as an initiation in hunting
26.	to initiate (a person) to an activity or organization, esp by real-life experience

Related: haemal, haematic, sanguineous

[Old English blōd; related to Old Norse blōth, Old High German bluot]

Blood (blʌd)

—n
	Thomas, known as Colonel Blood. ?1618--80, Irish adventurer, who tried to steal the crown jewels (1671)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

blood

O.E. blod, from P.Gmc. *blodam (cf. O.Fris. blod, O.N. bloð, M.Du. bloet, O.H.G. bluot, Ger. Blut, Goth. bloþ), from PIE *bhlo-to-, perhaps meaning "to swell, gush, spurt," or "that which bursts out" (cf. Goth. bloþ "blood," bloma "flower"), in which case it wo7uld be from suffixed form

of *bhle-, extended form of *bhel- "to thrive, bloom" (see bole). There seems to have been an avoidance in Germanic, perhaps from taboo, of other PIE words for "blood," such as *esen- (cf. poetic Gk. ear, O.Latin aser, Skt. asrk, Hittite eshar); also *krew-, which seems to have had a sense of "blood outside the body, gore from a wound" (cf. L. cruour "blood from a wound," Gk. kreas "meat"), which came to mean simply "blood" in the Balto-Slavic group and some other languages. Inheritance and relationship senses (also found in L. sanguis, Gk. haima) emerged in English by mid-13c. As the seat of passions, it is recorded from c.1300. Slang meaning "hot spark, a man of fire" [Johnson] is from 1560s. Blood money is from 1530s.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

blood (blŭd)
n.

The fluid consisting of plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets that is circulated by the heart through the arteries and veins, carrying oxygen and nutrients to and waste materials away from all body tissues.
One of the four humors of ancient and medieval physiology, identified with the blood found in the blood vessels, and believed to cause cheerfulness.
descent from a common ancestor; parental lineage.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Cite This Source

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

blood

(blŭd) Pronunciation Key

The fluid tissue that circulates through the body of a vertebrate animal by the pumping action of the heart. Blood is the transport medium by which oxygen and nutrients are carried to body cells and waste products are picked up for excretion. Blood consists of plasma in which red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets are suspended.
A fluid that is similar in function in many invertebrate animals.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

American Heritage

Cultural Dictionary

blood definition

The fluid circulating through the heart, arteries, veins, and capillaries of the circulatory system. Blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the cells of the body and removes waste materials and carbon dioxide. It is composed of plasma (mainly water, but with a mixture of hormones, nutrients, gases, antibodies, and wastes), red blood cells (which carry oxygen), white blood cells (which help combat infection), and platelets (which help the blood clot).

Slang Dictionary

blood definition

n.
catsup. : Somebody pass the blood.
Go to blood (brother). :
n.
a black buddy or fellow gang member. (Streets. Also a term of address.) : My bloods aren't going to like this.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source

blood (brother) definition

n.
a fellow black male. (See also blood.) : One of the bloods came up to say hello.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source

Easton

Bible Dictionary

Blood definition

(1.) As food, prohibited in Gen. 9:4, where the use of animal food is first allowed. Comp. Deut. 12:23; Lev. 3:17; 7:26; 17:10-14. The injunction to abstain from blood is renewed in the decree of the council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:29). It has been held by some, and we think correctly, that this law of prohibition was only ceremonial and temporary; while others regard it as still binding on all. Blood was eaten by the Israelites after the battle of Gilboa (1 Sam. 14:32-34). (2.) The blood of sacrifices was caught by the priest in a basin, and then sprinkled seven times on the altar; that of the passover on the doorposts and lintels of the houses (Ex. 12; Lev. 4:5-7; 16:14-19). At the giving of the law (Ex. 24:8) the blood of the sacrifices was sprinkled on the people as well as on the altar, and thus the people were consecrated to God, or entered into covenant with him, hence the blood of the covenant (Matt. 26:28; Heb. 9:19, 20; 10:29; 13:20). (3.) Human blood. The murderer was to be punished (Gen. 9:5). The blood of the murdered "crieth for vengeance" (Gen. 4:10). The "avenger of blood" was the nearest relative of the murdered, and he was required to avenge his death (Num. 35:24, 27). No satisfaction could be made for the guilt of murder (Num. 35:31). (4.) Blood used metaphorically to denote race (Acts 17:26), and as a symbol of slaughter (Isa. 34:3). To "wash the feet in blood" means to gain a great victory (Ps. 58:10). Wine, from its red colour, is called "the blood of the grape" (Gen. 49:11). Blood and water issued from our Saviour's side when it was pierced by the Roman soldier (John 19:34). This has led pathologists to the conclusion that the proper cause of Christ's death was rupture of the heart. (Comp. Ps. 69:20.)

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
Cite This Source

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

blood

In addition to the idiom beginning with blood, also see bad blood; draw blood; flesh and blood; in cold blood; in one's blood; make one's blood boil; make one's blood run cold; new blood; out for (blood); run in the blood (family); scream bloody murder; shed blood; sporting blood; sweat blood. Also see under bleed.