Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Leech
Leech
,Noun.
[Cf. LG.
leik
, Icel. līk
, Sw. lik
boltrope, stående liken
the leeches.] (Naut.)
The border or edge at the side of a sail.
[Written also
leach
.] Leech line
, a line attached to the leech ropes of sails, passing up through blocks on the yards, to haul the leeches by.
Totten.
– Leech rope
, that part of the boltrope to which the side of a sail is sewed.
Leech
,Noun.
[OE.
leche
, læche
, physician, AS. lǣce
; akin to Fries. lētza
, OHG. lāhhī
, Icel
. læknari
, Sw. läkare
, Dan. læge
, Goth. lēkeis
, AS. lācnian
to heal, Sw. läka
, Dan. læge
, Icel. lækna
, Goth. lēkinōn
.] 1.
A physician or surgeon; a professor of the art of healing.
[Written also
leach
.] [Archaic]
Spenser.
2.
(Zool.)
Any one of numerous genera and species of annulose worms, belonging to the order
Hirudinea
, or Bdelloidea, esp. those species used in medicine, as Hirudo medicinalis
of Europe, and allied species. ☞ In the mouth of bloodsucking leeches are three convergent, serrated jaws, moved by strong muscles. By the motion of these jaws a stellate incision is made in the skin, through which the leech sucks blood till it is gorged, and then drops off. The stomach has large pouches on each side to hold the blood. The common large bloodsucking leech of America (
Macrobdella decora
) is dark olive above, and red below, with black spots. Many kinds of leeches are parasitic on fishes; others feed upon worms and mollusks, and have no jaws for drawing blood. See Bdelloidea
. Hirudinea
, and Clepsine
. 3.
(Surg.)
A glass tube of peculiar construction, adapted for drawing blood from a scarified part by means of a vacuum.
Horse leech
, a less powerful European leech (
Hæmopis vorax
), commonly attacking the membrane that lines the inside of the mouth and nostrils of animals that drink at pools where it lives.Leech
,Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Leeched
(lēcht)
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Leeching
.] 1.
To treat as a surgeon; to doctor;
as, to
. leech
wounds[Archaic]
2.
To bleed by the use of leeches.
Webster 1828 Edition
Leech
LEECH
, n.1.
A physician; a professor of the art of healing.[This word, in the United States, is nearly or wholly obsolete. Even cow leech is not used.]
2.
A blood-sucker; an animal of the genus Hirudo, a species of aquatic worm, which is used in the medical art for topical bleeding. One large species of this animal is called horse-leech.3.
In seamen's language, the border or edge of a sail, which is sloping or perpendicular; as the fore-leech, the after-leech, &c.