Blood

Pronunciation

• enPR: blÅ­d, IPA: /blÊŒd/
• Rhymes: -ÊŒd

Alternative forms

• bloud obsolete

Origin

Middle English blod, Old English blōd, Proto-Germanic *blōþą, of uncertain origin. Cognate with West Frisian bloed, Dutch bloed, German Blut, Danish blod, Swedish blod.

Full definition of blood

Noun

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 blood flows into the menstrual cup.
• 1927, F. E. Penny, Pulling the Strings Chapter 4, The case was that of a murder. It had an element of mystery about it, however, which was puzzling the authorities. A turban and loincloth soaked in blood had been found; also a staff.
• 2013-06-01, A better waterworks, An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.
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.)
• Edmund Waller (1606-1687)a friend of our own blood
• Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)to share the blood of Saxon royalty
3. (medicine, countable) A blood test or blood sample.
4. 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; ...
5. (obsolete) The juice of anything, especially if red.
• Bible, Genesis xiix. 11He washed...his clothes in the blood of grapes.
6. (obsolete) Temper of mind; disposition; state of the passions.
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616)when you perceive his blood inclined to mirth
7. (obsolete) A lively, showy man; a rake.
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616)Seest thou not...how giddily 'a turns about all the hot bloods between fourteen and five and thirty?
• William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863)It was the morning costume of a dandy or blood.
8. Alternative capitalization of Blood (member of a certain gang).

Hyponyms

• menstruation

Derived terms

Related terms

• bleed

Verb

1. To cause something to be covered with blood; to bloody.
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.
3. To initiate into warfare or a blood sport.