Dictionary Home » Dictionary Definitions » leech

leech

Listen See in Thesaurus See in a sentence

The definition of a leech is a type of worm found in water or in wet areas with a strong sucker on both ends of its body which it uses to suck blood from its hosts, or a person who attaches themselves to another person like a parasite.

(noun)

An example of a leech is a flat black worm that sticks to you in a swamp.
An example of a leech is someone who befriends a elderly person in order to get their money.

To leech is defined as to get a file on a file sharing site that is being hosted by another user without allowing your file to be copied at the same time.

(verb)

An example of to leech is to download a movie on IsoHunt without sharing it to other users to download.

To leech means to cling to something or take all that thing has.

(verb)

An example of to leech is for a loan shark to take the money of someone who defaults on a loan.

See leech in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

Archaic a physician
any of a subclass (Hirudinea) of mostly flattened, annelid worms living in water or wet earth and having a well-developed sucker at each end: most are bloodsuckers, and one species (Hirudo medicinalis) has been used in medicine, esp. in former times, to bleed patients
a person who clings to another to gain some personal advantage; parasite

Origin: ME leche < OE læce, akin to OHG lāhhi, Goth lēkeis, magician, healer, OE lacnian, to heal, prob. < IE base *le-, collect, gather together > L lex (see legal); leechsense is supposedly same word (from use in medicine), but OE (Kentish) lyce, ME liche, MDu lieke suggest different word assimilated by folk etym.

transitive verb

Obsolete to heal
to apply leeches to; bleed with leeches
to cling to (another) as a parasite; drain dry

intransitive verb

to act as a parasite: often with onto

noun

the after edge of a fore-and-aft sail
either of the vertical edges of a square sail

Origin: LME lyche, akin to ON lik < Du lijk, boltrope < IE base *lei-, to bind, fasten > L ligare, to tie

See leech in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

Any of various chiefly aquatic bloodsucking or carnivorous annelid worms of the class Hirudinea, of which one species (Hirudo medicinalis) was formerly used by physicians to bleed patients and is now sometimes used as a temporary aid to circulation during surgical reattachment of a body part.
One that preys on or clings to another; a parasite.
Archaic A physician.

verb leeched, leech·ing, leech·es

verb, transitive