bled


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bleed

 (blēd)
v. bled (blĕd), bleed·ing, bleeds
v.intr.
1. To emit or lose blood.
2. To be wounded, especially in battle.
3. To feel sympathetic grief or anguish: My heart bleeds for the victims of the air crash.
4. To exude a fluid such as sap.
5. To pay out money, especially an exorbitant amount.
6.
a. To run together or be diffused, as dyes in wet cloth.
b. To undergo or be subject to such a diffusion of color: The madras skirt bled when it was first washed.
7. To show through a layer of paint, as a stain or resin in wood.
8. To be printed so as to go off the edge or edges of a page after trimming.
v.tr.
1.
a. To take or remove blood from.
b. To extract sap or juice from.
2.
a. To draw liquid or gaseous contents from; drain.
b. To draw off (liquid or gaseous matter) from a container.
3.
a. To obtain money from, especially by improper means.
b. To drain of all valuable resources: "Politicians ... never stop inventing illicit enterprises of government that bleed the national economy" (David A. Stockman).
4.
a. To cause (an illustration, for example) to bleed.
b. To trim (a page, for example) so closely as to mutilate the printed or illustrative matter.
n.
1. An instance of bleeding.
2. Illustrative matter that bleeds.
3.
a. A page trimmed so as to bleed.
b. The part of the page that is trimmed off.
Phrasal Verbs:
bleed off
Aerospace To decrease: "Mike reared the chopper almost vertical to bleed off airspeed" (Robert Coram).
bleed out
1. To lose or cause to lose all or almost all of the blood from the body: The victim would have bled out if the paramedics hadn't arrived quickly. The hunter bled out the deer.
2. To lose or cause to lose all or almost all of a substance: Allow the air to bleed out of the system.

[Middle English bleden, from Old English blēdan; see bhel- in Indo-European roots.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
References in classic literature ?
"Your fever will sink, if you are bled. See, I have provided a lancet and will open your veins, while you lie quiet."
So she bled him, and he fell into a stupor which lasted nearly all that day, so that he awoke weak and exhausted from loss of blood.
So he bled and bled until he felt his strength slipping away from him.