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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

blood       (blŭd)  Pronunciation Key  n.   The fluid consisting of plasma, blood cells, and platelets that is circulated by the heart through the vertebrate vascular system, carrying oxygen and nutrients to and waste materials away from all body tissues. A functionally similar fluid in animals other than vertebrates. The juice or sap of certain plants. Descent from a common ancestor; parental lineage. Family relationship; kinship. Descent from noble or royal lineage: a princess of the blood. Recorded descent from purebred stock. National or racial ancestry. A vital or animating force; lifeblood. One of the four humors of ancient and medieval physiology, identified with the blood found in blood vessels, and thought to cause cheerfulness. Bloodshed; murder. Temperament or disposition: a person of hot blood and fiery temper. Descent from a common ancestor; parental lineage. Family relationship; kinship. Descent from noble or royal lineage: a princess of the blood. Recorded descent from purebred stock. National or racial ancestry. A dandy. tr.v.   blood·ed, blood·ing, bloods To give (a hunting dog) its first taste of blood. To subject (troops) to experience under fire: "The measure of an army is not known until it has been blooded" (Tom Clancy). To initiate by subjecting to an unpleasant or difficult experience. [Middle English blod, from Old English blōd; see bhel-3 in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Blood       (blŭd)  Pronunciation Key  n.   pl. Blood or Bloods A tribe of the Blackfoot confederacy inhabiting southern Alberta. A member of this tribe.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
blood 

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

blood
noun
1.	the fluid (red in vertebrates) that is pumped through the body by the heart and contains plasma, blood cells, and platelets; "blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the tissues and carries away waste products"; "the ancients believed that blood was the seat of the emotions"
2.	temperament or disposition; "a person of hot blood"
3.	a dissolute man in fashionable society [syn: rake]
4.	the descendants of one individual; "his entire lineage has been warriors"
5.	people viewed as members of a group; "we need more young blood in this organization"
verb
1.	smear with blood, as in a hunting initiation rite, where the face of a person is smeared with the blood of the kill

American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms - Cite This Source - Share This

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.

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
blood

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).

[Chapter:] Medicine and Health

American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

blood (blŭd)
n.

1. 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.
2. One of the four humors of ancient and medieval physiology, identified with the blood found in the blood vessels, and believed to cause cheerfulness.
3. Descent from a common ancestor; parental lineage.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Blood

Blood\, n. [OE. blod, blood, AS. bl?d; akin to D. bloed, OHG. bluot, G. blut, Goth, bl??, Sw. & Dan. blod; prob. fr. the same root as E. blow to bloom. See Blow to bloom.]

1. The fluid which circulates in the principal vascular system of animals, carrying nourishment to all parts of the body, and bringing away waste products to be excreted. See under Arterial.

Note: The blood consists of a liquid, the plasma, containing minute particles, the blood corpuscles. In the invertebrate animals it is usually nearly colorless, and contains only one kind of corpuscles; but in all vertebrates, except Amphioxus, it contains some colorless corpuscles, with many more which are red and give the blood its uniformly red color. See Corpuscle, Plasma.

2. Relationship by descent from a common ancestor; consanguinity; kinship.

To share the blood of Saxon royalty. --Sir W. Scott.

A friend of our own blood. --Waller.

Half blood (Law), relationship through only one parent.

Whole blood, relationship through both father and mother. In American Law, blood includes both half blood, and whole blood. --Bouvier. --Peters.

3. Descent; lineage; especially, honorable birth; the highest royal lineage.

Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam. --Shak.

I am a gentleman of blood and breeding. --Shak.

4. (Stock Breeding) Descent from parents of recognized breed; excellence or purity of breed.

Note: In stock breeding half blood is descent showing one half only of pure breed. Blue blood, full blood, or warm blood, is the same as blood.

5. The fleshy nature of man.

Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood. --Shak.

6. The shedding of blood; the taking of life, murder; manslaughter; destruction.

So wills the fierce, avenging sprite, Till blood for blood atones. --Hood.

7. A bloodthirsty or murderous disposition. [R.]

He was a thing of blood, whose every motion Was timed with dying cries. --Shak.

8. Temper of mind; disposition; state of the passions; -- as if the blood were the seat of emotions.

When you perceive his blood inclined to mirth. --Shak.

Note: Often, in this sense, accompanied with bad, cold, warm, or other qualifying word. Thus, to commit an act in cold blood, is to do it deliberately, and without sudden passion; to do it in bad blood, is to do it in anger. Warm blood denotes a temper inflamed or irritated. To warm or heat the blood is to excite the passions. Qualified by up, excited feeling or passion is signified; as, my blood was up.

9. A man of fire or spirit; a fiery spark; a gay, showy man; a rake.

Seest thou not . . . how giddily 'a turns about all the hot bloods between fourteen and five and thirty? --Shak.

It was the morning costume of a dandy or blood. --Thackeray.

10. The juice of anything, especially if red.

He washed . . . his clothes in the blood of grapes. --Gen. xiix. 11.

Note: Blood is often used as an adjective, and as the first part of self-explaining compound words; as, blood-bespotted, blood-bought, blood-curdling, blood-dyed, blood-red, blood-spilling, blood-stained, blood-warm, blood-won.

Blood baptism (Eccl. Hist.), the martyrdom of those who had not been baptized. They were considered as baptized in blood, and this was regarded as a full substitute for literal baptism.

Blood blister, a blister or bleb containing blood or bloody serum, usually caused by an injury.

Blood brother, brother by blood or birth.

Blood clam (Zo["o]l.), a bivalve mollusk of the genus Arca and allied genera, esp. Argina pexata of the American coast. So named from the color of its flesh.

Blood corpuscle. See Corpuscle.

Blood crystal (Physiol.), one of the crystals formed by the separation in a crystalline form of the h[ae]moglobin of the red blood corpuscles; h[ae]matocrystallin. All blood does not yield blood crystals.

Blood heat, heat equal to the temperature of human blood, or about 981/2 [deg] Fahr.

Blood horse, a horse whose blood or lineage is derived from the purest and most highly prized origin or stock.

Blood money. See in the Vocabulary.

Blood orange, an orange with dark red pulp.

Blood poisoning (Med.), a morbid state of the blood caused by the introduction of poisonous or infective matters from without, or the absorption or retention of such as are produced in the body itself; tox[ae]mia.

Blood pudding, a pudding made of blood and other materials.

Blood relation, one connected by blood or descent.

Blood spavin. See under Spavin.

Blood vessel. See in the Vocabulary.

Blue blood, the blood of noble or aristocratic families, which, according to a Spanish prover, has in it a tinge of blue; -- hence, a member of an old and aristocratic family.

Flesh and blood. (a) A blood relation, esp. a child. (b) Human nature.

In blood (Hunting), in a state of perfect health and vigor. --Shak.

To let blood. See under Let.

Prince of the blood, the son of a sovereign, or the issue of a royal family. The sons, brothers, and uncles of the sovereign are styled princes of the blood royal; and the daughters, sisters, and aunts are princesses of the blood royal.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Blood

Blood\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Blooded; p. pr. & vb. n. Blooding.]

1. To bleed. [Obs.] --Cowper.

2. To stain, smear or wet, with blood. [Archaic]

Reach out their spears afar, And blood their points. --Dryden.

3. To give (hounds or soldiers) a first taste or sight of blood, as in hunting or war.

It was most important too that his troops should be blooded. --Macaulay.

4. To heat the blood of; to exasperate. [Obs.]

The auxiliary forces of the French and English were much blooded one against another. --Bacon.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Blood

(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.)