Word.ws English Dictionary

first blood

first blood noun: the condition in a duel in which the first one to draw blood from the other wins.

Noun

first blood (uncountable)

  1. The condition in a duel in which the first one to draw blood from the other wins.
  2. The first damage or reverse inflicted on an opponent in a conflict.
    • Sayers won first blood by cutting Crouch's right eye, and the battle by knocking his man out with a nose-ender in 12 minutes 28 seconds, 6 rounds being fought.1879, Ed James, The Lives and Battles of the Champions of England, page 39
    • Rambo - They drew first blood, not me.
      Trautman - Look Johnny, let me come in and get you the hell out of there!
      Rambo - They drew first blood...
      Trautman - Rambo, are you still reading me? Covey leader to Raven! Rambo! Acknowledge! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083944/quotes
  3. The first score in a competition.

Questions about first blood

What does first blood mean?
First blood means the condition in a duel in which the first one to draw blood from the other wins.
What part of speech is first blood?
First blood is a noun.

Words near first blood in the dictionary

  1. first best
  2. first bests
  3. first bite free
  4. First Bloke
  5. First Blokes
  6. first blood
  7. first call
  8. First Cat
  9. first catch your hare
  10. First Cats
  11. first cause

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: first 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-first blood.wav.

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