▪ I. leech, n.1
(liːtʃ)
Forms: 1 lǽce, Northumb. léce, 2–6 leche, 3 lache, læche, liache, 3, 6 leache, 4 leyche, 4–5 lecche, 4–6 lech, 5 leeche, lieche, 6 Sc. leiche, leitche, 6–9 leach, 6– leech.
[OE. lǽce str. masc. (once lǽca wk.), corresponds to OFris. (dative) letza, leischa, OHG. lâhhi, MSw. läkir (Da. læge; ON. has the cognate lǽknir, and mod.Sw. läkare, from the vb. läka to heal), Goth. lêkeis:—OTeut. *læ̂kjo-z:—pre-Teut. *lēgio-s; the synonymous Irish liaigh (OIr. liaig, dat. pl. legib) is app. related in some way.]
1. A physician; one who practises the healing art.
Now arch. (chiefly poet.) or jocular; often apprehended as a transferred use of leech n.2 In the 17th c. it was applied in ordinary prose use only to veterinary practitioners, and this sense survives in some dialects. (See also the combs. bullock-leech, cow-leech, horse-leech, etc.)
| c 900 tr. Bæda's Hist. iv. xxi. [xix.] (1890) 320 Cyneferð læce, se æt hire wæs, þa heo forðferde. c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Luke iv. 23 La lece lecna ðec seoline. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 83 Nu bihoueð þe forwunded wreche þet he habbe leche. c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 101/7 On leches heo hadde i-spendet Muche del of hire guod. a 1300 Cursor M. 26322 Als lech þou suld seke man hale. a 1340 Hampole Psalter vi. 1 Þe hand of þe leche brennand or sherend. c 1386 Chaucer Sompn. T. 248 What nedeth hym þat hath a parfit leche To sechen othere leches in the toun? c 1450 Merlin 574 The kynge delyuered hem leches to couer theire woundes. 1513 Douglas æneis xiii. Prol. 80 Als stern of spech As he had bene ane medycyner or lech. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. v. 17 Many skilfull leaches him abide To salve his hurts. a 1656 Hales Serm. at Eton (1673) 40 They that come and tell you what you are to believe,..and tell you not why, they are not Medici, but Veterinarii, they are not Physicians, but Leaches. 1715 Rowe Lady Jane Grey i. i. 2 The hoary wrinkled Leach has..Try'd ev'ry health-restoring Herb and Gum. 1776 Phil. Trans. LXVI. 498 A farrier and bullock-leach. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. iii. (1810) 43 Can this proud leech, with all his boasted skill, Amend the soul or body, wit or will? 1820 Scott Abbot vi, A learned leech with some new drug. a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) II. 85 Grudging the leech his growing bill. 1870 Morris Earthly Par. I. i. 121 As one who lays all hope aside, Because the leech has said his life must end. |
b. transf. and fig. Applied often to God and Christ, and spiritual persons.
| a 1200 Moral Ode 303 Ich kan beo ȝif i scal lichame and soule liache. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 41 Ure louerd ihesu crist is alre herdene herde and alre lechene leche. a 1225 Ancr. R. 182 Þus is sicnesse soule leche, & salue of hire wunden. 1340 Ayenb. 129 Þe holi gost is þe guode leche þet amaystreþ his ziknesse. c 1386 Chaucer Sompn. T. 184 God that is oure lyues leche. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. xii. 129 The best Of benes boyled water may be leche To sle the frost. a 1547 Surrey in Tottel's Misc. (Arb.) 221 My hartes delight my sorowes leche mine earthly goddesse here. |
† 2. = leechman, leech-finger. Obs.
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. 308/311 Þe nexte finguer hatte ‘leche’. c 1475 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 753/2 Hic medius, the longman. Hic medi[c]us, the leche. Hic auricularis, the lythylman. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as leech-fee, ‘a physician's fee’ (Cent. Dict.); † leech-house, a hospital; leechman, † a physician; also (now dial.) = leech-finger.
| 14.. Camb. MS. Ff. v. 48 lf. 82 (Halliw., s.v. Fingers) The lest fyngir hat lityl man, for hit is lest of alle; The next fynger hat leche man, for quen a leche dos oȝt, With that fynger he tastes all thyng, howe that hit is wroȝt. 1483 Cath. Angl. 211/1 A Leche house, laniena, quia infirmi ibi laniantur. 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. iv. 401 Light-bringer, Laureat, Leach-man, all-Reviver. 1600 F. L. Ovid's Remedy of Love B 2, The Leachmans skill. 1888 Syd. Soc. Lex., Leechman, a practitioner of medicine. |
▪ II. leech, n.2
(liːtʃ)
Forms: 1 lǽce, (l{yacu}ce), 3 liche, 4–6 leche, 5 Sc. leiche, 6–9 leach, 6– leech.
[OE. lǽce, Kentish l{yacu}ce str. masc. = MDu. lake (Kilian laecke, lijck-laecke, mod.Flemish lijklake), lieke, leke fem.
Commonly regarded as a transf. use of leech n.1; this is plausible, but the forms OE. lyce, early ME. liche, MDu. lieke, suggest that the word was originally distinct, but assimilated to lǽce leech n.1 through popular etymology.]
1. a. One of the aquatic blood-sucking worms belonging to the order Hirudinea: the ordinary leech used medicinally for drawing blood belongs to the genus Hirudo or Sanguisuga. (See also horseleech, land-leech (land n.1 11 b), sea-leech, water-leech, etc.)
| a 900 Kentish Glosses in Wr.-Wülcker 85/11 Sanguissuge, lyces. c 1000 ælfric Gloss. ibid. 121/36 Sanguisuga, uel hirudo, læce. a 1275 Prov. ælfred 472 in O.E. Misc. 131 Suket þuru is liche, so dot liche blod. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 291/2 Leche, wy(r)m of þe watur, sanguissuga. 1508 Kennedie Flyting w. Dunbar 45 Lat him lay sax leichis on thy lendis. 1533 Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 61 Evacuation by wormes, founde in waters called bloudde suckers or leaches. 1656 Ridgley Pract. Physick 154 Leeches set behind the Ears. 1794 Burke Sp. Impeachm. W. Hastings Wks. XV. 351 He was driven out of it finally by the rebellion, and, as you may imagine, departed like a leech full of blood. 1803 Med. Jrnl. X. 430 The application of four leeches to each ankle. 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) IV. 2 The hirudo viridis or green leech [is well known to multiply] by longitudinal sections. 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. iii. iv. 140 There are three principal varieties of Leeches employed in France. These are—1st, the Grey Leech; 2nd, the Green Leech; 3rd, the Dragon Leech..(true English or Speckled Leech). |
| transf. 1833 Alison Hist. Europe (1849–50) II. viii. §34. 261 Those female furies, aptly termed the ‘leeches of the guillotine’. |
| Proverbial phrase. c 1839 W. E. Forster in Reid Life (1888) I. iv. 115 He [Cobden] is..likely to mistake a crotchet for a principle and stick to it like a leech. |
b. Surg. artificial leech: see quot. 1875.
| 1858 in Simmonds Dict. Trade. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. s.v., Artificial Leech, a light glass tube from which the air is expelled by the vapor of ether, and whose mouth is then applied to a previously scarified portion of the body. 1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 497 The artificial leech was applied to the temple on three occasions. |
c. fig. One who ‘sticks to’ another for the purpose of getting gain out of him.
| 1784 Cowper Task iii. 817 The spendthrift, and the leech That sucks him. 1794 Pigott Female Jockey Club (ed. 4) Pref. 20 Are the hearts of these leeches softened by the possession of such scandalous monopoly? 1842 Tennyson Will. Waterproof xxv, Ere days, that deal in ana, swarm'd His literary leeches. 1883 J. Parker Tyne Ch. 86 It's a sticking leech you have laid on me this time, and a famous biter. |
2. attrib. and Comb., as leech-bite, leech-bleeder, leech-breeder, leech-dealer, leech-family, leech-gatherer, leech-tribe; leech-like adj. and adv.; leech-eater, a name for the Spur-winged Plover (Holopterus spinosus) and the Crocodile-bird (Pluvianus ægyptius); leech-extract, an extract prepared from leeches, used in physiological experiments for intravenous or intraperitoneal injections; leech-gaiter, a kind of gaiter worn in Ceylon as a protection against land-leeches; leech-glass Surg., a glass tube to hold a leech which it is required to apply to a particular spot; † leech-worm = 1.
| 1882 H. De Windt Equator 57 We..reached the bungalow..none the worse, with the exception of *leech-bites and cut feet. |
| 1851 in Illustr Lond. News 5 Aug. (1854) 119 *Leech-bleeder, *leech-breeder. |
| 1839 Penny Cycl. XIII. 383/2 The *leech-dealers of Bretagne. |
| 1885 Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888) IV. 100 The so-called spur-winged plover (Hoplopterus spinosus)..claims the distinction of being the ‘*leech-eater’ or ‘trochilos’ of Herodotus. |
| 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 420 Organic substances such as fibrin ferment, hemi-albumose, peptones, nuclein, and *leech extract..have the effect on injection, of bringing about a marked and rapid diminution in the number of leucocytes. |
| 1839 Penny Cycl. XIII. 383/1 Cuvier thinks it doubtful whether the species of this genus [Clepsina] should be arranged with the *leech family. |
| 1859 Tennent Ceylon I. 303 The coffee planters, who live among these pests, are obliged..to envelope their legs in ‘*leech gaiters’ made of closely woven cloth. |
| 1802 Wordsw. Resolut. & Indep. xx, I'll think of the *leech-gatherer on the lonely moor. |
| 1839 Penny Cycl. XIII. 384/1 It is difficult to make them fix themselves on the particular spot wished; but a *leech-glass will generally effect this. |
| 1682 Dryden Medal 149 The Witnesses, that, *Leech-like, liv'd on bloud. 1819 Shelley Eng. in 1819, 5 Rulers who neither see nor feel nor know, But leech-like to their fainting country cling, Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 8 Jan. 3/2 He is prepared to stick to it with almost leech-like tenacity. 1908 Ibid. 6 Oct. 10/2 Parasitical and leech-like characteristics. 1963 R. P. Dales Annelids ix. 176 The parasitic leech-like branchiobdellids also belong to the Prosopora. |
| 1835–6 Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 170/2 There is observed in the *leech-tribe something analogous to the lesser circulation. |
| 1794 Sporting Mag. IV. 271 Observations on the *Leech worm, by a Gentleman who kept one several Years for the purpose of a Weather-glass. |
▪ III. leech, n.3 Naut.
(liːtʃ)
Forms: 5 lek, leche, lyche, 7 leatch, 7, 9 leach, 7– leech.
[Of obscure origin; app. related in some way to ON. līk (a nautical term of obscure meaning; the Sw. lik, Da. lig mean ‘bolt-rope’), Du. lijk, G. liek, leech-line.]
a. Either vertical edge of a square sail; the aft edge of a fore-and-aft sail. Also with qualifications, as after-leech, mast-leech, roach-leech, weather-leech.
| 1485 [see b]. 1496 Ld. Treas. Acc. Scotl. (1877) I. 300 Item, to Dauid Gourlay, for making of a bonat and the lek to it. 1611 Cotgr., Penne d'un voile,..the Leech of a sayle. 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. vii. 32 The Leech of a saile is the outward side or skirt of the saile from the earing to the clew, the middle betwixt which wee account the Leech. 1762 Falconer Shipwr. ii. 62 The leeches taught, the hallyards are made fast. 1835 Marryat Jac. Faithf. xvii, They were handing in the leech of the sail, when snap went one bunt-line. 1881 Clark Russell Sailor's Sweetheart I. v. 123 The leech of the top-gallant sail. 1948 R. de Kerchove Internat. Maritime Dict. 407/1 Leech, the side of a square sail, or the afteredge of a fore-and-aft sail. Also called skirt when referring to square sails. |
b. attrib. in † leech-hook, a hook for attaching the leech-line to the sail; leech-line, a rope attached to the leech, serving to truss the sail close up to the yard; leech-lining (see quot. 1883); leech-rope (see quot. 1769).
| 1485 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 38 Shanke hokes.., Pakke hokes.., *Leche hokes. 1495 Ibid. 158 Lyche hokes of Yron,..loff hokes of yron. |
| 1626 Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Sea-men 30 Cleare your *leach-lines. 1627 ― Seaman's Gram. v. 23 Leech lines are small ropes made fast to the Leech of the top-sailes. 1860 Merc. Marine Mag. VII. 113 A leach-line is bent on each yard-arm. |
| 1883 Man. Seamanship for Boys' Training Ships R. Navy (Admiralty) (1886) 53 Q. What is a goring cloth? A. A side cloth of a topsail,..or lining of a topsail, called by sailmakers the *leech lining. |
| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1780), *Leech-rope, a name given to that part of the bolt-rope, to which the border, or skirt of a sail is sewed. 1800 Asiat. Ann. Reg., Chron. 23/2 The leech ropes of the fore-sail, main-sail, fore-top sail, and mizen-top-sail. 1885 A. Brassey The Trades 465 Repaired leech rope of mizen and set the sail. |
▪ IV. leech, n.4
(liːtʃ)
(See quots.)
| 1805 J. Luccock Nat. Wool 15 The part of the staple through which the shears passed to separate it from the sheep (and which is commonly called the leech of the fleece). Ibid. 310 In some instances a quantity of dirt is concealed by the custom of winding fleeces with the leech outwards. 1892 Simmonds Dict. Trade Suppl., Leech, the technical name for a bundle or small parcel of human hair. |
▪ V. leech, v.1 Now rare and arch.
(liːtʃ)
Forms: 3 liache, Orm. læchenn; 3–6 leche, 4–5 liche, 5–6 lech, 5, 7 leach, 6 leeche, 9 leech.
[Early ME., f. leech n.1; cf. Sw. läka, Da. læge. The sense was expressed in OE. by lácnian, lǽcnian: see lechne v.]
trans. To cure, heal.
| c 1200 Ormin 4274 He comm her to læchenn uss Off all þatt dæþess wunde. Ibid. 17227 Hiss gast Iss clennsedd & rihht læchedd. a 1300 Cursor M. 176 Iesu crist..openlik bigan..alle þat sek ware to leche. Ibid. 11841 Þai moght not leche his wa. 1382 Wyclif Job v. 18 [The Lord] woundeth and lecheth; smyteth, and his hondis shuln helen. c 1440 York Myst. xvii. 156 A barne is borne Þat shall..leche þam þat ar lorne. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 1832 He taght goddis wordes..And synfull' men lyues lechyd. 1564 Louth Corporat. Acc. (1891) 78 Paid for leching my horses verie sicke, vs. 1618 Fletcher Loyal Subj. iii. v, Have ye any crack maidenhead to new leach or mend? 1820 Scott Ivanhoe xviii, Let those leech his wounds for whose sake he encountered them. 1850 Blackie æschylus I. 63 A disease that none may leech. |
▪ VI. leech, v.2
[f. leech n.2]
trans. To apply leeches to medicinally. Also absol.
| 1828 G. Ewing in Mem. (1847) xiv. 5, I was leeched and bled in the arm and am almost quite well. 1834 Forbes Laennec's Dis. Chest (ed. 4) 427 The patient was bled and leeched with relief. 1861 Geo. Eliot Silas M. xvi, When I'm leeching or poulticing. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 346 The protruding tongue must be leeched. |
Add: 2. intr. Const. on (to). To attach oneself like a leech; to be parasitic on. Also const. off.
| 1937 R. Narayan Bachelor of Arts xiv. 201 It was nearly two years since he left college, and he was still leeching on his father. 1983 Listener 23 June 14/2 A silver-tongued mountebank leeching on to suffering, pitilessly fleecing the gullible. 1986 Philadelphia Inquirer 6 Nov. 4d/5 As you might imagine, the greedy and the tasteless are wanting to leech onto him, to cash in on The Farewell Tour. 1988 People Weekly 23 May 11/1 They exist to leech on our fears and desires for revenge and to use the suffering of victims to boost ratings. 1990 Sunday Mail Mag (Brisbane) 25 Mar. 22 To leech off the American people! |
3. fig. To drain (someone or something) of energy, money, etc.; to drain (something) away or from something.
There appears to be some confusion with leach v.2 4.
| a 1961 in Webster s.v., Bankers who had always leeched them white. [1964 Listener 13 Aug. 225/2 It [sc. a modern office block] has neither virtues nor vices; it just sits there like a graceless woman, leeching away a bit more of the city's vitality.] 1974 Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Mar. 211/4 The invading Englishman..leeching the land with his reservoirs and his crass afforestations. 1981 R. Davies Rebel Angels iii. 98 ‘What's he been up to?’ ‘Leeching and bumming and sornering.’ 1988 Times 17 Feb. 12/1, I see no reason why the London cabbie should not..leech his heritage..for mutual gain. 1990 Times 5 Apr. 1/3 The brain-drain..leeched 45,000 people from the territory. |
▪ VII. leech
obs. form of, or variant of leach.