blood
see also: Blood
Pronunciation
  • enPR: blŭd, IPA: /blʌd/
  • (Northern England) enPR: blo͝od, IPA: /blʊd/
Noun

blood

  1. A vital liquid flowing in the bodies of many types of animals that usually conveys nutrients and oxygen. In vertebrates, it is colored red by hemoglobin, is conveyed by arteries and veins, is pumped by the heart and is usually generated in bone marrow.
    The cultists gathered around a chalice of blood.
    • 1646, Thomas Browne, “Of the Cameleon”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: Or, Enquiries into Very Many Received Tenents, and Commonly Presumed Truths, London: Printed for Tho. Harper for Edvvard Dod, OCLC 838860010 ↗; Pseudodoxia Epidemica: Or, Enquiries into Very Many Received Tenents, and Commonly Presumed Truths. […], 2nd corrected and much enlarged edition, London: Printed by A. Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath. Ekins, […], 1650, OCLC 152706203 ↗, book 3, page 133 ↗:
      It cannot be denied it [the chameleon#English|chameleon] is (if not the moſt of any) a very abſtemious animall, and ſuch as by reaſon of its frigidity, paucity of bloud, and latitancy in the winter (about which time the obſervations are often made) will long ſubſist without a viſible ſuſtentation.
  2. A family relationship due to birth, such as that between siblings; contrasted with relationships due to marriage or adoption (see blood relative, blood relation, by blood).
    • a friend of our own blood
    • 1820, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. [...] In Three Volumes, volume (please specify ), Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], OCLC 230694662 ↗:
  3. (historical) One of the four humours in the human body.
  4. (medicine, countable) A blood test or blood sample.
  5. The sap or juice which flows in or from plants.
    • 1841, Benjamin Parsons, Anti-Bacchus ↗, page 95:
      It is no tautology to call the blood of the grape red or purple, because the juice of that fruit was sometimes white and sometimes black or dark. The arterial blood of our bodies is red, but the venous is called "black blood."
    • 1901, Levi Leslie Lamborn, American Carnation Culture, fourth edition, page 57:
      Disbudding is merely a species of pruning, and should be done as soon as the lateral buds begin to develop on the cane. It diverts the flow of the plant's blood from many buds into one or a few, thus increasing the size of the flower, [...]
    • 1916, John Gordon Dorrance, The Story of the Forest, page 44:
      Look at a leaf. On it are many little raised lines which reach out to all parts of the leaf and back to the stem and twig. These are "veins," full of the tree's blood. It is white and looks very much like water; [...]
  6. (poetic) The juice of anything, especially if red.
    • Bible, Book of Genesis xiix. 11
      He washed […] his clothes in the blood of grapes.
  7. (obsolete) Temper of mind; disposition; mood
    • c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act 4, scene iii]:
      When thou perceive his blood inclined to mirth
  8. (obsolete) A lively, showy man; a rake; a dandy.
    • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene iii]:
      Seest thou not […] how giddily 'a turns about all the hot bloods between fourteen and five and thirty?
    • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair (novel, Chapter 3:
      […] it was the morning costume of a dandy or blood of those days […]
  9. A blood horse, one of good pedigree.
  10. (figurative) Bloodshed.
    They came looking for blood.
  11. Alternative letter-case form of Blood#English|Blood member of a certain gang.
Synonyms Related terms Verb

blood (bloods, present participle blooding; past and past participle blooded)

  1. (transitive) To cause something to be covered with blood; to bloody.
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify ), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292 ↗:
      |||tr=|brackets=|subst=|lit=|nocat=1|footer=}}|}}
      The French gentleman and Mr Adderly, at the desire of their commanding officer, had raised up the body of Jones, but as they could perceive but little (if any) sign of life in him, they again let him fall, Adderly damning him for having blooded his wastecoat […]
  2. (medicine, historical) To let blood (from); to bleed.
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, page 121:
      Mr Western, who imputed these symptoms in his daughter to her fall, advised her to be presently blooded by way of prevention.
    • 1785, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin 2001, p. 212:
      She had been blooded, he said, 12 times in this last fortnight, and had lost 75 ounces of blood, besides undergoing blistering,and other discipline.
  3. (transitive) To initiate into warfare or a blood sport, traditionally by smearing with the blood of the first kill witnessed.
Translations
  • German: anbluten
  • Portuguese: ensanguentar
  • Spanish: ensangrentar

Blood
Noun

blood (plural bloods)

  1. A member of the Los Angeles gang The Bloods.



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