Word.ws English Dictionary

horse leech

horse leech is the alternative form of horse-leech.

Meaning of horse-leech

Noun

horse-leech (plural horse-leeches)

  1. 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...
  2. (obsolete) A veterinarian for horses.

Forms of horse leech

pluralhorse leeches

Questions about horse leech

What is horse leech the alternative form of?
Horse leech is the alternative form of horse-leech.

Words near horse leech in the dictionary

  1. horse iron
  2. horse irons
  3. horse latitudes
  4. horse laugh
  5. horse laughs
  6. horse leech
  7. horse leeches
  8. horse litter
  9. horse litters
  10. horse mackerel
  11. horse mackerels

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: horse leech (page history and authors); 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.