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Did you know: What do you call the pale, half-moon shaped part of your cuticle?

leech

 - 12 dictionary results

leech

1   [leech]
–noun
1.
any bloodsucking or carnivorous aquatic or terrestrial worm of the class Hirudinea, certain freshwater species of which were formerly much used in medicine for bloodletting.
2.
a person who clings to another for personal gain, esp. without giving anything in return, and usually with the implication or effect of exhausting the other's resources; parasite.
3.
Archaic. an instrument used for drawing blood.
–verb (used with object)
4.
to apply leeches to, so as to bleed.
5.
to cling to and feed upon or drain, as a leech: His relatives leeched him until his entire fortune was exhausted.
6.
Archaic. to cure; heal.
–verb (used without object)
7.
to hang on to a person in the manner of a leech: She leeched on to him for dear life.
Use leech in a Sentence
Origin:
bef. 900; ME leche, OE lǣce; r. (by confusion with leech2) ME liche, OE lȳce; c. MD lieke; akin to OE lūcan to pull out, MHG liechen to pull

—Related forms
leechlike, adjective

—Synonyms
2. bloodsucker; extortioner; sponger.

leech

2   [leech]
–nounArchaic.
a physician.
Origin:
bef. 1150; ME leche, OE lǣce; c. OS lāki, OHG lāhhi, Goth lēkeis; akin to ON lǣknir

leech

3   [leech]
–nounNautical.
1.
either of the lateral edges of a square sail.
2.
the after edge of a fore-and-aft sail.
Also, leach.

Origin:
1480–90; earlier lek, leche, lyche; akin to D lijk leech, ON līk nautical term of uncert. meaning

Leech

   [leech]
–noun
Margaret, 1893–1974, U.S. historian, novelist, and biographer.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.
Cite This Source Link To leech
World English Dictionary
leech1 (liːtʃ) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
—n
1.  horseleech See also medicinal leech any annelid worm of the class Hirudinea, which have a sucker at each end of the body and feed on the blood or tissues of other animals
2.  a person who clings to or preys on another person
3.  a.  an archaic word for physician
 b.  (in combination): leechcraft
4.  cling like a leech to cling or adhere persistently to something
 
—vb
5.  (tr) to use leeches to suck the blood of (a person), as a method of medical treatment
 
[Old English lǣce, lœce; related to Middle Dutch lieke]
 
'leechlike1
 
—adj

leech or leach2 (liːtʃ) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
—n
nautical the after edge of a fore-and-aft sail or either of the vertical edges of a squaresail
 
[C15: of Germanic origin; compare Dutch lijk]
 
leach or leach2
 
—n
 
[C15: of Germanic origin; compare Dutch lijk]

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

leech
"bloodsucking aquatic worm," from O.E. læce (Kentish lyce), of unknown origin (with a cognate in M.Du. lake). Commonly regarded as a transf. use of leech (2), but the O.E. forms suggest a distinct word, which has been assimilated to leech (2) by folk etymology. Figuratively applied to human parasites since 1784.

leech
obsolete for "physician," from O.E. læce, from O.Dan. læke, from P.Gmc. *lælijaz "healer, physician" (cf. O.N. læknir, O.H.G. lahhi, Goth. lekeis "physician"), lit. "one who counsels," perhaps connected with a root found in Celt. (cf. Ir. liaig "charmer, exorcist, physician") and/or Slavic (cf. Serbo-Croatian lijekar), with an original sense of "speak, talk, whisper, conjurer." The form and sense merged with leech (1) in M.E. by folk etymology. In 17c., leech usually was applied only to veterinary practitioners. The third finger of the hand, in O.E., was læcfinger, translating L. digitus medicus, Gk. daktylus iatrikos, supposedly because a vein from that finger stretches straight to the heart.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

1leech definition

Pronunciation: /ˈlēch/
Function: n
: any of numerous carnivorous or bloodsucking annelid worms that comprise the class Hirudinea, that typically have a flattened segmented lance-shaped body with well-marked external annulations, a sucker at each end, a mouth within the anterior sucker, and a large stomach with pouches of large capacity at the sides, that are hermaphroditic usually with direct development, and that occur chiefly in freshwater although a few are marine and some tropical forms are terrestrial see MEDICINAL LEECH

2leech definition

Function: vt
1 : to treat as a physician : CURE HEAL
2 : to bleed by the use of leeches
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2007 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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leech 1 (lēch)
n.
Any of various chiefly aquatic bloodsucking or carnivorous annelid worms of the class Hirudinea, one species of which (Hirudo medicinalis) was formerly used by physicians to bleed patients. v. leeched, leech·ing, leech·es
To bleed with leeches.

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

leech definition

networking
Someone who downloads files but provides nothing for others to download. The term is common on BitTorrent, which relies on having multiple sources for files to improve download speed.
(2007-03-27)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © Denis Howe 2010 http://foldoc.org
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