Word.ws English Dictionary

horseleech

horseleech 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 horseleech

pluralhorseleeches

Questions about horseleech

What is horseleech the alternative form of?
Horseleech is the alternative form of horse-leech.

Words near horseleech in the dictionary

  1. horseknop
  2. horseknops
  3. horselaugh
  4. horselaughs
  5. horselaughter
  6. horseleech
  7. horseleeches
  8. horseless
  9. horseless carriage
  10. horseless carriages
  11. horselessness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: horseleech (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: “horseleech.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/horseleech. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.