leech
/ˈliːt͡ʃ/
leech noun: a typically aquatic blood-sucking annelid of the subclass Hirudinea, especially Hirudo medicinalis.
Noun (1)
leech (plural leeches)
- A typically aquatic blood-sucking annelid of the subclass Hirudinea, especially Hirudo medicinalis.
- The leech on his leg had swelled to more than five inches long, puffed and swollen on his blood.2003, William W. Johnstone, The Last Of The Dog Team, page 195
- A person who derives advantage from others in a parasitic fashion.
- 'Wrecked his body and his mind, no use to hisself or his family or nobody, just a leech on society'.2000, Ray Garmon, The Man Who Just Didn't Care, page 20
- At this point, I felt this man was a leech. I suspected that he had spent a lifetime living off the good will of women that he met.2006, D. L. Harman, A State of Nine One One, page 106
- Synonyms:
- parasite
- A glass tube designed for drawing blood from damaged tissue by means of a vacuum.
Verb (1)
leech (third-person singular simple present leeches, present participle leeching, simple past and past participle leeched)
- To apply a leech medicinally, so that it sucks blood from the patient.
- This had to be leeched, and lanced, and doctored with ointments and poultices for several weeks, till I was almost driven to despair, - for the weather was at length fine, and I was tantalized by seeing grand butterflies flying past my door, and thinking of the twenty or thirty new species of...1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 316
- The poppy made him sleep and while he slept they leeched him to drain off the bad blood.2000 August 8, George R[aymond] R[ichard] Martin, “Davos [Seaworth]”, in A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire; 3), London: Voyager, →ISBN, page 285
- To drain (resources) without giving back.
- Near-synonyms: mooch, suck down
- Bert leeched hundreds of files from the BBS, but never uploaded anything in return.
Noun (2)
leech (plural leeches)
- A physician.
- Many skillful leeches him abide to salve his hurts.1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- The word Physitian we do vulgarly abuse (as we doe very many other(s)) for a Leech , or Medicus.1610, Armoriesː, Bolton
- A healer.
- Their functions are threefold, those of the medicine-man (the leech, or healer by supernatural means); of the soothsayer (the prophet through communion with the invisible world); and of the priest, especially in his capacity as exorcist1900, Augustus Henry Keane, Man, Past and Present, Cambridge: The University Press
- In ancient times runesters were a specialized class separate from that of the witch or ordinary spell caster (much as the other specialists such as the leech or healer and the seithkona were different from a witch), and even today many believe it takes years of training to become adept at using the...1996, Swain Wodening, “Scandinavian Craft Lesson 6: Runic Divination”, Theod Magazine 3 (4)
- Synonyms:
- healer
Verb (2)
leech (third-person singular simple present leeches, present participle leeching, simple past and past participle leeched)
Noun (3)
leech (plural leeches)
- The vertical edge of a square sail.
- To help combat these problems, almost all sailmakers trim the leeches of their headsails to a hollow or concave profile and enclose a LEECHLINE within the leech tabling.1984, Sven Donaldson, A Sailor's Guide to Sails, page 130
- The aft edge of a triangular sail.
- Trim the leech of the jib parallel to the main by watching the slot between the mainsail and the jib.2004, Gary Jobson, Gary Jobson's Championship Sailing, page 176
Proper noun capitalized: Leech
Leech (plural Leeches)
leech meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
leech in Hindi
- annelid
- जोंक jõk, जोँक jõk, जलूका jalūkā
- person who derives profit from others
- जोंक jõk, जोँक jõk
leech in Tamil
- annelid
- அட்டை aṭṭai
- person who derives profit from others
- ஒட்டுண்ணி oṭṭuṇṇi
leech in Marathi
- annelid
- जळू jaḷū
leech in Urdu
- annelid
- جونک jonk
More languagesFewer languages
- leech in Bengali
- জোঁক jō̃k
- leech in Telugu
- జలౌకసము jalaukasamu, జెలగ jelaga
- leech in Malayalam
- നീരട്ട nīraṭṭa, അട്ട aṭṭa
- leech in Kannada
- ಅಟ್ಟೆ, ಇಂಬುಳ, ಇಂಬಳ, ಇಂಬಳು
- leech in Punjabi
- ਜੋਕ jok, ਜਲੌਕਾ jalaukā
- leech in Gujarati
- જળો jaḷo, જોખ jokh, જોક jok
- leech in Sanskrit
- जलूका jalūkā
- leech in Assamese
- জোক zük
- leech in Pashto
- ژوره žawǝ́ra, وخچه waxčá
- leech in Tagalog
- linta, mandarangkat
- leech in Arabic
- عَلَق ʕalaq
- leech in Malay
- lintah
- leech in Indonesian
- lintah
- leech in Persian
- زالو zâlu, زروک zoruk
- leech in Thai
- ปลิง bpling, ทาก tâak
- leech in Vietnamese
- đỉa
- leech in Myanmar
- ကျွတ် kywat, မျှော့ hmyau.
- Kashmiri
- دٕرٕک dụrụk
Examples of leech in a sentence
- Can this proud leech, with all his boasted skill, / Amend the soul or body, wit or will?1807, George Crabbeː, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- He coughed sputum stained with blood, and a scraping, crackling noise came from his chest, quite audible to anyone in the room. ‘Lungs possibly not too good,’ the leech said.1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial, published 2007, page 11:
- though there are many Pretenders to the Art of Farriering and Cow-leeching, yet many of them are very ignorant , especially in the Countrie1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for...
Synonyms of leech
3 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of leech
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | leeches |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | leeches |
| present participle | leeching |
| past participle | leeched |
| past | leeched |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Leeches |
| alternative form | Leach |
Origin of leech
From Middle English leche (“blood-sucking worm”), from Old English lǣċe (“blood-sucking worm”), akin to Middle Dutch lāke ("blood-sucking worm"; > modern Dutch laak).
From Middle English leche (“physician”), from Old English lǣċe (“doctor, physician”), from Proto-West Germanic *lākī, from Proto-Germanic *lēkijaz (“doctor”), of disputed origin, but usually thought to be connected with Proto-Celtic (compare Old Irish líaig (“doctor, physician”)); perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to collect, gather”). Cognate with Old Frisian lētza (“physician”), Old Saxon lāki (“physician”), Old High German lāhhi (“doctor, healer”), Danish læge (“doctor, surgeon”), Gothic 𐌻𐌴𐌺𐌴𐌹𐍃 (lēkeis, “physician”). Slavic words such as Serbo-Croatian ljèkār, Polish lekarz (“physician, doctor”) are usually considered to be borrowings from Germanic.
From Middle English lechen (“to cure, heal, treat”), from Middle English leche (“doctor, physician”). Compare Swedish läka (“to heal”) and Norwegian Nynorsk lækja (“to heal”).
Words formed from leech
Phrases with leech
Words that rhyme with leech
Questions about leech
- What does leech mean?
- Leech means a typically aquatic blood-sucking annelid of the subclass Hirudinea, especially Hirudo medicinalis.
- What is leech in Hindi?
- Leech in Hindi is जोंक (jõk), जोँक (jõk), जलूका (jalūkā). See Leech meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use leech in a sentence?
- Can this proud leech, with all his boasted skill, / Amend the soul or body, wit or will?
- What part of speech is leech?
- Leech can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce leech?
- Leech is pronounced /ˈliːt͡ʃ/.
- What is the plural of leech?
- The plural of leech is leeches.
Words near leech in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: leech (page history and authors); Leech (page history and authors); leech (Kannada 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-leech.ogg.
Cite this entry: “leech.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/leech. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.