Word.ws English Dictionary

fleam

/fliːm/

fleam noun: a sharp instrument used to open a vein, to lance gums, or the like.

Noun (1)

fleam (plural fleams)

  1. A sharp instrument used to open a vein, to lance gums, or the like.
    • A bloodstick - a piece of hard wood loaded at one end with lead — is used to strike the fleam into the vein1831-1850, William Youatt, On the Structure and the Diseases of the Horse

Noun (2)

fleam (plural fleams)

  1. (Northern England, UK, dialectal) The watercourse or runoff from a mill; millstream
  2. (Northern England, UK, dialectal) A large trench or gully cut into a meadow in order to drain it

fleam meaning in Urdu

fleam in Urdu

نشتر

Forms of fleam

pluralfleams
alternative formphleam
alternative formfleem

Origin of fleam

From Middle English fleme, fleom, from Old French flieme, flemie (“open vein”), probably via a Proto-Germanic source (compare Old Saxon flēma, Old High German fliotuma, fliodema, Old English flȳtme (“fleam, lancet”)), borrowed from Vulgar Latin fletoma, *fletomus, from Late Latin flebotomus, phlebotomus, from Ancient Greek φλεβοτόμον (phlebotómon). Compare French flamme, Dutch vlijm, German Fliete, Danish flitte (“fleam”). Doublet of phlebotome.

From Middle English fleem, flem (“the rushing of water; current”), probably from Old English flēam (“fleeing; flight; rush”), from Proto-Germanic *flaumaz (“stream; current; flood”), from Proto-Indo-European *plew- (“to fly; flow; run”). Cognate with Norwegian Nynorsk flaum (“flood”).

Words formed from fleam

  • fleam saw
  • fleam tooth
  • fleamy

Words that rhyme with fleam

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about fleam

What does fleam mean?
Fleam means a sharp instrument used to open a vein, to lance gums, or the like.
What is fleam in Urdu?
Fleam in Urdu is نشتر. See Fleam meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is fleam?
Fleam is a noun.
How do you pronounce fleam?
Fleam is pronounced /fliːm/.
What is the plural of fleam?
The plural of fleam is fleams.

Words near fleam in the dictionary

  1. fleaker
  2. fleakers
  3. fleaking
  4. fleaks
  5. flealike
  6. fleam
  7. fleamarket
  8. fleamarketed
  9. fleamarketing
  10. fleamarkets
  11. fleams

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fleam (page history and authors); fleam (Urdu Wiktionary) (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)-Vealhurl-fleam.wav.

Cite this entry: “fleam.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fleam. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.