Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use leech in a sentence

29 example sentences · noun, verb

Leech means a typically aquatic blood-sucking annelid of the subclass Hirudinea, especially Hirudo medicinalis. Example: “Bert leeched hundreds of files from the BBS, but never uploaded anything in return.”

Examples of leech by meaning

nounA 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

nounA 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.2006, D. L. Harman, A State of Nine One One, page 106

verbTo apply a leech medicinally, so that it sucks blood from the patient.

  • 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...

verbTo drain (resources) without giving back.

  • Bert leeched hundreds of files from the BBS, but never uploaded anything in return.
  • Her daughter Astrid (new Tim Burton muse Jenna Ortega) barely speaks to her, and her greasy-haired boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux, proving once again to be a comedic tour de force) obviously leeching off her fame and money2024 September 6, Anna McKibbin, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice reinvigorates Tim Burton’s stale brand, returning to practical playfulness”, in...

nounA physician.

  • 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

nounA 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
  • "Leech?" "Not another doctor".2003, Brian Froud, Ari Berk, The Runes of Elfland, Pavillion Books, →ISBN, page 22

nounThe 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

nounThe 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

More sentences with leech

  • A leech can fix itself to your skin without you feeling it.From the entry fix
  • The swimmers wore pantyhose to stop the leeches in the lake from sucking them dry.From the entry suck dry
  • His behaviour at the party was a total disgrace! He was leeching on all the ladies, and insulting the men.From the entry disgrace
  • The leech is a haematophagous creature.From the entry haematophagous
  • He would leech onto some girl and eventually move into her home.2022, Ling Ma, “Oranges”, in Bliss Montage, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN. From the entry mo
  • For the unions, the private sector is a grasping, evil leech.2022 August 24, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Rail strikes deadlock”, in RAIL, number 964, page 3. From the entry ideology
  • Hirudinin, a powerful anticoagulant secreted by the leech, causes continued bleeding after the leech has detached.2008, Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 17th edition, McGraw-Hill, page 2750. From the entry hirudinin
  • Those leeches have been stealing my happiness somehow!2023, James Sandoval, “Buying Happiness”, in But A Jape (webcomic). From the entry poor
  • Worst of all though were the leeches.2010 March 24, John H. Goodwin, chapter 41, in The Reluctant Spy, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 293. From the entry rid
  • I won’t let those thieving, murdering leeches who call themselves our kin get their slimey hands on you.1996, Hannah Howell, “Wild Roses”, in Unconquered, New York, N.Y.: Zebra Books, →ISBN, page 342. From the entry slimey
  • Even with the Anglo Saxon leech books, we are dealing with ancient wisdom filtered and diffused into another age and culture.1978, Keith Vincent Smith, The Illustrated Earth Garden Herbal, Melbourne: Thomas Nelson Australia, page 22, column 2. From the entry leechbook
  • This Saxon manuscript has a dignity which is unique, for it is the oldest existing leech book written in the vernacular.1922, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, The Old English Herbals, London: Longmans, Green and Co., page 5. From the entry leechbook
  • Moving the trunk of the body forward and backwards, even in strong winds, can flap the leech and increase the sail's drive (ooching).2013, Bryan Willis, “Means of Propulsion”, in The Rules in Practice: 2013–2016, Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley Nautical, John Wiley &…. From the entry ooch
  • The fourth finger has a strange anatomical property that gives it both its ancient and modern names: the leech finger and the ring finger.2012, Mark Forsyth, The Etymologicon. From the entry leech-finger
  • And by the time you came to me that fool of a doctor had bled and leeched the lifeblood out of Timmy.circa 1980, George Spelvin, Petticoat Loose, Act II, Scene 1, published in George Spelvin's theatre book, volume 3. From the entry lifeblood
  • Weill and Nouriquand conclude that under certain conditions hemorrhage may develop after leech applications in consequenc of a hemophilia due to hirudine.1912, E. Weill, C. Nouriquand, “Secondary Hemorrhage Following the Application of Leeches”, in The American Journal of the Medical…. From the entry hirudine
  • 'If we don't know whether we are doing any good, then we are not any better than the medieval doctors and their leeches,' says Esther Duflo, a leading randomista.2011, Tim Harford, Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure, →ISBN. From the entry randomista
  • For some, simply to stroke the ring finger over a wound was enough to heal it and it eventually became known as the healing finger or the leech finger.2007, Desmond Morris, The Naked Woman. From the entry leech-finger

Meaning of leech

  1. noun A typically aquatic blood-sucking annelid of the subclass Hirudinea, especially Hirudo medicinalis.
  2. noun A person who derives advantage from others in a parasitic fashion.
  3. noun A glass tube designed for drawing blood from damaged tissue by means of a vacuum.

Full definition of leech

Questions about leech in a sentence

How do you use leech in a sentence?
Leech is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Bert leeched hundreds of files from the BBS, but never uploaded anything in return.”
What is a short sentence with leech?
“"Leech?" "Not another doctor".”
What does leech mean?
Leech means a typically aquatic blood-sucking annelid of the subclass Hirudinea, especially Hirudo medicinalis.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: leech (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use leech in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/leech. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.