horse-leech
horse-leech noun: a type of sucking worm, Haemopis sanguisuga, larger than the common leech.
Noun
horse-leech (plural horse-leeches)
- A type of sucking worm, Haemopis sanguisuga, larger than the common leech.
- Some use horse-leeches behind the ears, and apply opium to the place.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II...
- A veterinarian for horses.
horse-leech meaning in Vietnamese
horse-leech in Vietnamese
- Haemopis sanguisuga
- đỉa trâu
Forms of horse-leech
| plural | horse-leeches |
|---|
Origin of horse-leech
From Middle English horseleche, horse leche (“horse doctor; bloodsucker, leech”), equivalent to horse + leech. The worm is so called because it commonly attacks the membrane that lines the inside of the mouth and nostrils of animals, such as horses, that drink at pools where it lives.
Questions about horse-leech
- What does horse-leech mean?
- Horse-leech means a type of sucking worm, Haemopis sanguisuga, larger than the common leech.
- What is horse-leech in Vietnamese?
- Horse-leech in Vietnamese is đỉa trâu. See Horse-leech meaning in Vietnamese.
- What part of speech is horse-leech?
- Horse-leech is a noun.
- What is the plural of horse-leech?
- The plural of horse-leech is horse-leeches.
Words near horse-leech in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: horse-leech (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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Cite this entry: “horse-leech.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/horse-leech. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.