Leech /(lēch)/

Leech

n.
  1. See 2d Leach.

Leech

v. t.
  1. See Leach, v. t.

Leech

n.
  1. The border or edge at the side of a sail. (Naut.)

Phrases & Compounds
Leech line
a line attached to the leech ropes of sails, passing up through blocks on the yards, to haul the leeches by.
Leech rope
that part of the boltrope to which the side of a sail is sewed.

Leech

n.
  1. A physician or surgeon; a professor of the art of healing. [Archaic]
    Leech, heal thyself.
    — Wyclif (Luke iv. 23).
  2. Any one of numerous genera and species of annulose worms, belonging to the order Hirudinea, or Bdelloidea, esp. those species <-- formerly! --> used in medicine, as Hirudo medicinalis of Europe, and allied species. (Zool.)
  3. A glass tube of peculiar construction, adapted for drawing blood from a scarified part by means of a vacuum. (Surg.)

Phrases & Compounds
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

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Leeched; 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.