Meaning of Leech | Babel Free

Definitions

1. An aquatic blood-sucking annelid of subclass Hirudinea, especially Hirudo medicinalis.
2. A surname originating as an occupation, derived from the profession leech, a former word for a physician.
3. A physician.
   archaic
4. The vertical edge of a square sail.
5. A person who derives advantage from others in a parasitic fashion.
   figuratively
6. A healer.
   Germanic
7. The aft edge of a triangular sail.
8. A glass tube designed for drawing blood from damaged tissue by means of a vacuum.
   dated

Equivalents

Examples

“The leech on his leg had swelled to more than five inches long, puffed and swollen on his blood.”

“'Wrecked his body and his mind, no use to hisself or his family or nobody, just a leech on society'.”

“At this point, I felt this man was a leech. I suspected that he had spent a lifetime living off the good will of women that he met.”

“Many skillful leeches him abide to salve his hurts.”

“The word Physitian we do vulgarly abuse (as we doe very many other(s)) for a Leech , or Medicus.”

“1610, Bolton, Armoriesː As if an expert leech must needs be expert in the physicks (that is, in those speculations which concerne the workes of nature) the nearest word to fall with our tongue, yet not farre from the thing, was physitian.”

“Thus virtuous Orsin was endued / With learning, conduct, fortitude / Incomparable; and as the prince / Of poets, Homer, sung long since, / A skilful leech is better far, / Than half a hundred men of war [...]”

“Can this proud leech, with all his boasted skill, / Amend the soul or body, wit or will?”

“For the sake of the minister’s health, and to enable the leech to gather plants with healing balm in them, they took long walks on the seashore or in the forest; mingling various talk with the plash and murmur of the waves, and the solemn wind anthem among in treetops.”

“He coughed sputum stained with blood, and a scraping, crackling noise came from his chest, quite audible to anyone in the room. ‘Lungs possibly not too good,’ the leech said.”

“Their functions are threefold, those of the medicine-man (the leech, or healer by supernatural means); of the soothsayer (the prophet through communion with the invisible world); and of the priest, especially in his capacity as exorcist”

“In ancient times runesters were a specialized class separate from that of the witch or ordinary spell caster (much as the other specialists such as the leech or healer and the seithkona were different from a witch), and even today many believe it takes years of training to become adept at using the runes in spell work.”

“"Leech?" "Not another doctor".”

“There are many kinds of "Leech" or "healer" as there are healing techniques, some are more powerful than others and some are very specific to certain illnesses and complaints; some use potions and unguents, others crystals and stones, others galdr and some work their healing from within the hidden realms themselves.”

“To help combat these problems, almost all sailmakers trim the leeches of their headsails to a hollow or concave profile and enclose a LEECHLINE within the leech tabling.”

“Trim the leech of the jib parallel to the main by watching the slot between the mainsail and the jib.”

CEFR level