Word.ws English Dictionary

draw blood

draw blood verb: to wound one's opponent in such a way that they bleed.

Verb

draw blood (third-person singular simple present draws blood, present participle drawing blood, simple past drew blood, past participle drawn blood)

  1. To wound one's opponent in such a way that they bleed.
    • to draw first blood
  2. (figuratively) To have an injurious effect; to strike home, as a barb or insult.
    • He lacked the art of wounding with the sword, and in any case his critics charged that he shrank from steel; but his invective was worthy of Demosthenes and his words drew blood.1966, Stringfellow Barr, The Mask of Jove

Forms of draw blood

third-person singular presentdraws blood
present participledrawing blood
pastdrew blood
past participledrawn blood

Origin of draw blood

From Middle English drawe blood.

Questions about draw blood

What does draw blood mean?
Draw blood means to wound one's opponent in such a way that they bleed.
What part of speech is draw blood?
Draw blood is a verb.
What is the past tense of draw blood?
The past tense of draw blood is drew blood.

Words near draw blood in the dictionary

  1. draw and quarter
  2. draw attention
  3. draw away
  4. draw back
  5. draw blank
  6. draw blood
  7. draw breath
  8. draw bridge
  9. draw bridges
  10. draw bridle
  11. draw cuts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: draw blood (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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