▪ I. blood, n.
(blʌd)
Forms: 1 blód, 2–5 blod (oː), 4–6 blode, 4– blood. Also 4 blodde, 5 bloode, 6–7 bloude, 6–8 bloud, 6 bludde, blud; Sc. 4–6 blud, 5–8 blude, 8–9 bluid, Sc. n.e. dial. bleid, bleed.
[Com. Teut.: OE. blód = OFris., OS. blôd (LG. blôd, Du. bloed), OHG. blôt, bluot (mod.Ger. blut), ON. blóð (Sw., Da. blod), Goth. blôþ:—OTeut. *blôdo(m, answering to an Aryan type *bhlātóm, not found with a suitable sense outside Teutonic, there being no general Aryan name for ‘blood’; doubtfully referred to verbal root blō̆- ‘blow, bloom’, which suits the form, but is less certain as to the sense. Like some other words in OE. long ó, blood has undergone more than the normal phonetic change; this would have left it (bluːd), riming with food, wooed; early in 16th c. the vowel was shortened (blud, blʊd), as in good, wood, and this subsequently changed to (ʌ) (blʌd), as in flood and Sc. wud = wood, etc.]
I. Literally.
1. a. prop. The red liquid circulating in the arteries and veins of man and the higher animals, by which the tissues are constantly nourished and renewed; also (by later extension) the corresponding liquid, coloured or colourless, in animals of lower organization.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. John vi. 55 Min blod is drinc. a 1100 O.E. Chron. an. 1012 His haliᵹe blod on ða eorðan feoll. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 187 Þi blod isched on þe rode. a 1300 Cursor M. 9999 It es rede als ani blod. c 1360 Song Mercy in E.E.P. (1862) 120 Myn herte blood ‘ran from me doun. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 40 Blode. 1483 Cath. Angl. 35 Blude. 1538 Wriothesley Chron. (1875) I. 90 Yt was no bloude. 1563 Homilies ii. Rebellion i. (1859) 558 No shedder of our bloods. 1580 Baret Alv. B 840 Bludde, sanguis. 1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 48 We shall repent each drop of bloud. 1611 Bible Lev. xvii. 14 Ye shall not eat the blood of no maner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof. 1654 Trapp Comm. Ps. iv. 3 The bloud of a Swine might not be offered in Sacrifices. 1711 Lond. Gaz. No. 4793/1 On the 16th the Blood of St. Januarius was exposed as usually. 1786 Burns Wks. III. 21 But feels his heart's bluid rising hot. 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. i. 38 The blood, or nutrient fluid, is a liquid of a more or less intense red..at other times it is almost colourless, as in most of the invertebrated animals. |
b. flesh and blood: the distinctive characteristics of the animal body; hence
= ‘humanity’ as opposed to ‘deity or disembodied spirit’. See
flesh.
† c. to the blood: through the outer skin, ‘to the quick’, till the blood flows; also
fig. Obs.| a 1300 Cursor M. 16230, I rede men..bete him to þe blod. 1662 Pepys Diary 10 Oct., I could not get on my boots, which vexed me to the blood. |
† d. to let blood (in Surgery): to open a vein so as to let blood flow from the body; to bleed; also
transf. to shed the blood of, to put to death. With
indirect passive, ‘he was let blood’.
arch.| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. III. 184 Mona se ðridda..nis na god mona blod lætan. 1483 Cath. Angl. 35 To latt Blude, fleobotomare. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 107 b, Spared not to suffer hym selfe to be let blode. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. ii. i. 186 Is the soule sicke?.. Alacke, let it bloud. 1594 ― Rich. III, iii. i. 180 His ancient Knot of dangerous Aduersaries To morrow are let blood at Pomfret Castle. 1614 Markham Cheap Husb. i. i. (1668) 7 It is good whilst a horse is in youth..to let him blood twice in the year. 1679 Jesuites Ghostly Ways 7 She was the next morning early to be let blood. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Garden, Let them Blood in the Neck-Vein. c 1819 Keats Ode to Fanny 1 Physician Nature! let my spirit blood! O ease my heart of verse and let me rest. |
e. Formerly used in oaths and forcible ejaculations, as
God's blood! Christ's blood! 'S blood! and
Blood! (
cf. 's wounds,
zounds.)
| a 1541 Wyatt Defence Wks. (1861) Pref. 39 God's blood, the King set me in the Tower. c 1590 Marlowe Faust (2nd vers.) 1028 Blood, he speaks terribly! 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, iv. viii. 10 'Sblud, an arrant Traytor as any es in the Vniuersall World. 1607 Heywood Wom. Kilde Wks. 1874 II. 119 Sblood sir I loue you. 1762 Sterne Tr. Shandy V. xxi. 89 Blood an 'ounds, shouted the corporal. 1822 Byron Juan viii. i, Oh blood and thunder! and oh blood and wounds! These are but vulgar oaths. |
f. Phrase.
(you cannot get) blood out of (or from) a stone or turnip: (you cannot achieve) the impossible,
esp. pity from the hard-hearted, or money from the avaricious.
| 1662 G. Torriano Second Alphabet 148/1 To go about to fetch bloud out of stones, viz. to attempt what is impossible. Ibid. 165/1 To go about to fetch bloud out of a turnip, viz. to attempt impossibilities. 1836 Marryat Japhet I. iv. 41 There's no getting blood out of a turnip. 1849 Dickens Dav. Copp. xi. 114 Blood cannot be obtained from a stone, neither can anything on account be obtained at present..from Mr. Micawber. 1889 Stevenson & Osbourne Wrong Box 8 ‘You cannot get blood from a stone,’ observed the lawyer. 1929 Observer 21 July 15 This Court has no machinery that I know of for extracting blood from stones. 1938 R. Finlayson Brown Man's Burden 27 You may as well try to get blood out of a stone as evidence out of a native! 1940 A. E. Hertzler Doctors & Patients (1941) x. 261 The age old difficulty of getting blood out of a turnip. |
2. fig. and
transf. Applied, always with conscious reference to
prec., to liquids or juices in some way resembling or suggesting it, as
a. to a blood-like juice;
b. poet. to the water of a river personified;
c. by partially scientific analogy, to the sap of plants.
| 1382 Wyclif Gen. xlix. 11 He shal wasshe..in blood of a grape his mantil. 1607 Shakes. Timon iv. iii. 432 Go, sucke the subtle blood o' th' Grape. 1807 J. E. Smith Phys. Bot. 45 It [the sap] is really the blood of the plant, by which its whole body is nourished. 1842 C. Johnson Farmer's Cycl. s.v. Aortal, The elaborated juice or blood of plants. 1854 B. Taylor Poems Orient (1866) 138, I from the flood Of his own brown blood Will drink to the glory of ancient Nilus! Ibid. 162 Golden blood of Lebanon. |
3. a. Blood shed; hence, bloodshed, shedding of blood; taking of life, manslaughter, murder, death.
| c 1000 ælfric Gen. iv. 10 Ðines broðor blod clypað up to me of eorðan. 1382 Wyclif Isa. i. 15 Ȝoure hondis ben ful of blod. 1593 Hooker Eccl. Pol. Pref. ii. §5 Either my blood or banishment shall sign it. a 1604 Hanmer Chron. Irel. (1633) 122 Bent to blood and villany. 1609 Bible (Douay) Nahum iii. 1 Wo to thee ô citie of blouds. a 1639 W. Whately Prototypes ii. xxix. (1640) 144 Beware of Blouds. 1648 Resol. Officers of Parl. Army, That it is our duty..to call Charles Stuart, that man of blood, to an account for that blood he has shed..in these poor nations. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 99 ¶7 An Affront that nothing but Blood can expiate. 1866 Felton Anc. & Mod. Gr. I. xi. 205 Then blood doth blood Demand. 1878 Morley Crit. Misc. (1886) I. 107 The true inquisitor is a creature of policy, not a man of blood by taste. |
b. Often used in the Bible and theological language for blood shed in sacrifice;
esp. the atoning sacrifice of Christ.
| c 1000 ælfric Exod. xxiv. 8 Þis ys þære treowðe blod þe Drihten eow behet be eallon þison spræcon. 1382 Wyclif Ex. xxiv. 8 This is the blood of the boond of pees, that the Lord couenauntide with ȝow [1611 the blood of the Couenant]. 1382 ― Ephes. ii. 13 Ȝe that weren sum tyme ferr, ben maad nyȝ in the blood of Crist [1611 by the blood of Christ]. 1644 Direct. Publ. Worship 26 The new Testament in the bloud of Christ. 1842 Chalmers Lect. Romans lxxix, The sin..now washed away by the blood of a satisfying expiation. |
c. The guilt or responsibility of bloodshed.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. xxvii. 25 Sy hys blod ofer us, and ofer ure bearn. 1382 Wyclif Lev. xx. 11 Thurȝ deth dien thei bothe; the blood of hem be vpon hem. 1611 Bible Matt. xxvii. 25 His blood be on vs, and on our children! Ibid. Josh. ii. 19 His blood shalbe vpon his head, and we will bee guiltlesse. |
d. blood and thunder, bloodshed and violence; used
attrib. in
blood-and-thunder book,
blood-and-thunder tale, etc., one describing the murderous exploits of desperadoes. (
orig. U.S.) Also shortened to
blood (
esp. in
pl.), as in
blood books, (
penny)
bloods.
| 1852 Lantern (N.Y.) II. 67/2 Most, however, of these ‘blood, thunder, and whiskey articles’, are written by raw lads. 1857 Quinland II. 76 Mrs. Bill, left to herself, resumed reading a blood and thunder romance. 1894 Daily News 29 May 6/4 ‘Blood and thunder books’;..‘blood books’—brief and brutal—is the expression in general use. 1897 W. J. Locke Derelicts iii, A writer of ‘penny bloods’. 1925 W. de la Mare Two Tales 32 The penny blood concealed in his ‘Arithmetic’. 1935 Discovery Nov. 346/2 As exciting reading as any blood-and-thunder novelette. |
e. blood and iron [G.
blut und eisen], military force as distinguished from diplomacy,
esp. in
the man of blood and iron, Prince Bismarck, who advocated the use of this as his policy.
| 1869 Porcupine 18 Sept. 235/1, I don't wonder at that man of ‘blood and iron’—Bismarck—openly expressing himself an admirer of La good-looking Lucca. 1872 New Dominion Monthly Oct. 195/1 You will find him indeed a man of ‘blood and iron’. 1889 H. P. Hughes Social Chr. v. 74 ‘There,’ they are saying, ‘nothing succeeds like a blood-and-iron policy.’ 1898 A. J. Butler tr. Bismarck's Refl. & Remin. I. 310 We should be unable to avoid a serious contest, a contest which could only be settled by blood and iron. 1922 C. E. Montague Disenchantment v. 69 In the whole blood-and-iron province of talk he would..outshine any actual combatant. |
f. blood and soil [G.
blut und boden], a Nazi catch-phrase, used
attrib. to denote Nazi members or ideology.
| 1940 Auden I Believe 22 The success of Fascist blood-and-soil ideology. 1957 M. K. Joseph I'll soldier no More (1958) xii. 223 There was a pile of stuff..put out by some kind of East-Prussian patriotic blood-and-soil gang. |
II. Properties, attributes, and states of body or feeling connoted by
blood. (Often derived from earlier superficial or erroneous notions of its character and action.)
† 4. a. The vital fluid;
hence, the vital principle, that upon which life depends; life.
† b. for the blood of him: for the life of him, though his life were involved.
Obs.| a 1300 Cursor M. 21462 His blod to sell. 1535 Coverdale Ps. lxxi. [lxxii.] 14 Deare shal their bloude be in his sight. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. i. 188 He slew Mercutio, Who now the price of his deare blood doth owe. 1679 Trial Wakeman 83 These mens Bloods are at stake. 1694 R. Lestrange Fables 12 A Royston Crow..could not for his blood break the shell. 1734 tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. (1827) VI. xv. §18. 299 This silver was no other than the blood of nations. 1740 Christmas Entertainm. v. (1884) 51 He could not get over the Stile for the Blood of him. |
5. The supposed seat of emotion, passion; as in ‘it stirs the blood’, ‘it makes the blood creep’ or ‘run cold’, ‘his blood is up’, ‘my blood boils’; whence, Passion, temper, mood, disposition;
emphatically, high temper, mettle; anger. Very frequent in Shakespeare: now chiefly in certain phrases, as
to breed bad or ill blood: to stir up strife, cause ill-feeling.
in cold blood: not in the heat of passion, deliberately.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 5054 Quen þe tan þe toþer sei Na wight moght þair blodes lei. a 1330 Otuel 70 Tydinges..Þat a⁓moeuede al here blod. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 37 b, Theyr blode and imaginacyon is sore troubled. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. i. ii. 20 The braine may deuise lawes for the blood, but a hot temper leapes ore a colde decree. 1597 ― 2 Hen. IV, iv. iv. 38 When you perceiue his blood enclin'd to mirth. 1605 ― Lear iv. ii. 64 Were't my fitness To let these hands obey my blood. 1626 Massinger Rom. Actor iv. ii., Carry her to her chamber..till in cooler blood I shall determine of her. 1646 Buck Rich. III, ii. 61 High in bloud and anger. 1704 Swift Batt. Bks. (1711) 232 Hot words passed..and ill Blood was plentifully bred. 1727 [see run v. 20 c]. 1787 T. Jefferson Corr. (1830) 273 It would not excite ill blood in me. 1818 Edin. Rev. XXX. 238 Her whole appearance, gestures, voice and dress, made De Courcy's blood run cold within him. 1823 Lamb Elia, Poor Relat., Bad blood [was] bred. 1829 G. Griffin Collegians II. xviii. 55 To use a vulgar but forcible expression, the blood of Hardress was now completely up. 1852 Stowe Uncle Tom i. 4 It kinder makes my blood run cold to think on't. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. viii. 271 The taking away of human life in cold blood. 1879 Froude Cæsar vii. 65 The blood of the people was up. |
6. The supposed seat of animal or sensual appetite; hence, the fleshly nature of man.
| 1597 Shakes. Lover's Compl. 162 Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood, That we must curb it upon others proof. 1610 ― Temp. iv. i. 53 The strongest oathes, are straw To th' fire ith' blood. |
7. Hunting phrase,
in blood: in full vigour, full of life.
out of blood: not vigorous, lifeless. (As applied to hounds the expression refers perhaps to the tasting of blood.)
| 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. ii. 3 The Deare was..sanguis in blood, ripe as a Pomwater. 1596 ― 1 Hen. IV, iv. ii. 48 If we be English Deere, be then in blood. 1781 P. Beckford Hunting (1802) 308 When hounds are out of blood, there is a kind of evil genius attending all that they do..while a pack of fox-hounds well in blood, like troops flushed with conquest, are not easily withstood. |
III. Race and kindred as connoted by
blood.
8. Blood is popularly treated as the typical part of the body which children inherit from their parents and ancestors; hence that of parents and children, and of the members of a family or race, is spoken of as identical, and as being distinct from that of other families or races.
blue blood: that which flows in the veins of old and aristocratic families, a
transl. of the Spanish
sangre azul attributed to some of the oldest and proudest families of Castile, who claimed never to have been contaminated by Moorish, Jewish, or other foreign admixture; the expression probably originated in the blueness of the veins of people of fair complexion as compared with those of dark skin; also, a person with blue blood; an aristocrat.
fresh blood: the introduction in breeding of a new strain or stock not related by blood to the family;
fig. new members or elements, with new ideas and experiences, admitted to a society or organization.
new blood = fresh blood.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xi. 193 For alle are we crystes creatures..And bretheren as of o blode. c 1440 Gesta Rom. i. xlii. 141 The othir too bethe bastardes, and not of his blode. 1543 Earl of Angus Let. in Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) III. 8 note, Considering the proximite of blude that was betwix us. 1608 Yorksh. Trag. i. ii. 199 You are a gentleman by many bloods. 1611 Bible Acts xvii. 26 [God] hath made of one blood all nations of men. a 1631 Donne Poems (1658) 1 And in this flea our two blouds mingled be. 1734 Pope Ess. Man iv. 201 Your antient but ignoble blood Has crept thro' Scoundrels ever since the Flood. 1768 Blackstone Comm. II. 203 So many different bloods is a man said to contain in his veins, as he hath lineal ancestors. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. I. 34 The pure blood of the ancient citizens. 1834 M. Edgeworth Helen xv. (D.) One [officer]..from Spain, of high rank and birth, of the sangre azul, the blue blood. 1838 Arnold Hist. Rome I. ii. 25 A mixed race in which other blood was largely mixed with that of the Latins. 1853 Lytton My Novel II. v. ii. 9 Long may the new blood circulate through the veins of the mighty giantess [sc. England]. 1879 Froude Cæsar xi. 120 A young nobleman of the bluest blood. 1880 Baily's Mag. Oct. 149 There was a good deal of change in the judicial bench... New blood was infused through Colonel —, Mr. —, and Major —. a 1887 Mod. You want some fresh blood to give new life and activity to your society. 1894 Daily News 16 Apr. 3/6 Many an aristocratic blue-blood..was glad to marry a rich burgher's daughter. 1920 Galsworthy In Chancery ii. i. 128 Round Crum were still gathered a forlorn hope of blue-bloods with a plutocratic following. |
9. a. Hence, Blood-relationship, and
esp. parentage, lineage, descent;
also in a wider sense: Family, kin, race, stock, nationality.
blood royal or
the blood: royal race or family.
whole blood: race or relationship by both father and mother, as distinguished from that of
half blood, relationship by one parent only. Hence
concr. half-blood: one whose blood is half that of one race and half that of another,
e.g. the offspring of a European and an Indian.
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 1451 He was bigeten of kinde blod. c 1400 Destr. Troy 6226 His brother of blud. c 1430 Syr Tryam. 430 Sche was of gentylle blode. 1513 More Edw. V (1641) 5 The Queene or the Nobles of her Bloud. 1602 Warner Alb. Eng. xi. lxvii. (1612) 284 This Ladie also of the blood, and heire vn to her Father, A mightie Prince. 1605 Verstegan Dec. Intell. Ded., Your Maiestie is descended of the chiefest bloud Royall of our antient English-Saxon Kings. 1650 R. Stapylton Strada's Low-C. Wars iii. 6 Anthony of Bourbon..being the first Prince of the bloud. 1697 Potter Antiq. Greece i. viii. (1715) 40 The distinction..between those of the whole, and those of the half Blood of Athens. 1798 Bay Amer. Law Rep. (1809) I. 109 Covenant to stand seised cannot be supported except by consideration of blood. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. iii. 528 They proved the blood, but were refused the land. 1810 Colebrooke Hindu Law Inherit. 180 The distinction regarding the whole and the half blood is contradicted, etc. 1820 Scott Monast. xiii, The old proverb..‘Gentle deed Makes gentle bleid’ (with play on sense 1). |
b. Proverb.
blood is thicker than water: the tie of relationship is strong.
| 1815 Scott Guy M. II. xxxviii. 318 Weel—blood's thicker than water—she's welcome to the cheeses. 1867 Trollope Chron. Barset xxxii. 271 ‘I am aware that there is a family tie, or I should not have ventured to trouble you.’ ‘Blood is thicker than water, isn't it?’ 1920 A. Huxley Leda 35 For Blood, as all men know, than Water's thicker, But Water's wider, thank the Lord, than Blood. |
10. concr. a. Persons of any specified ‘blood’ or family collectively; blood-relations, kindred, family, race.
| 1382 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 515 Alle lordis and ladies and here blod and affinite. 1413 Lydg. Pylgr. Sowle iv. xxxi. (1483) 80 His kynrede that is the royal blood of the reame. 1475 Bk. Noblesse 2 Arthur, king of the Breton bloode. 1595 Shakes. John iii. i. 301 Daul. Father, to Armes! Blanch. Vpon thy wedding day? Against the blood that thou hast married? a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Hist. Scot. (1655) 2 He being now matched with the Royall Blood of England in Marriage. 1681 Dryden Abs. & Achit. 641 By that one Deed Enobles all his Blood. 1838 Arnold Hist. Rome I. 107 He [Brutus] had loved justice more than his own blood. 1884 W. C. Smith Kildrostan 66 Your ancestors were..mated with the best blood of the land. |
† b. A family descended from a common ancestor; a clan or sept.
Obs.| 1612 Davies Why Ireland (1787) 79 Five principal bloods, or septs, of the Irish, were by special grace enfranchised. |
c. to run in the (formerly a) blood:
i.e. in a family or race.
| 1621 Sanderson Serm. I. 178 Tempers of the mind and affections become hereditary, and (as we say) run in a blood. 1641 Milton Ch. Govt. iv. Wks. (1851) 112 Unlesse we shall choose our Prelats only out of the Nobility, and let them runne in a blood. a 1703 Burkitt On N.T. Matt. xiv. 5 Cruelty runs in a blood. 1774 Sheridan Rivals iv. ii, Tell her 'tis all our ways—it runs in the blood of our family. |
11. a. More particularly: Offspring, child, near relative, one dear as one's own offspring. Formerly in
sing., with
pl. bloods.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus ii. 545 Now beth nought wroth, my blode, my nece. 1525 Ld. Berners Froiss. II. ccxlii. [ccxxxviii.] 748 To se suche difference within y⊇ realme, and bytwene his nephues and blode. 1682 Dryden Mac Fl. 166 Thou art my blood where Jonson has no part. 1741 H. Walpole Corr. I. 99 I have so many cousins, and uncles, and aunts and bloods that grow in Norfolk. |
b. (own) flesh and blood: near kindred, children, brothers and sisters. See
flesh.
12. Blood worth mention, good blood; good parentage or stock. (
Cf. birth n.1 5 b.)
a. Of human beings: Noble or gentle birth, good family.
| 1393 Gower Conf. III. 330 They be worthy men of blood. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 92 Bostynge hym selfe of his auncestres and kynrede, or of his rychesse or blode. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. v. xix. 436 Others were upstarts, men of no bloud. 1789 Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France & It. I. 97 Blood enjoys a thousand exclusive privileges. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 209 The highest pride of blood. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life v. (1861) 104 The obstinate prejudice in favour of blood, which lies at the base of the feudal and monarchical fabrics of the old world. |
b. Of bred animals: Good breed or pedigree. Also with a qualifying word.
Cf. bit of blood (
bit n.2 4 h).
| 1792 Sporting Mag. I. 101/1 The Wold dogs beat the blood of the Norfolks, as some of the best bred of the late Lord Orford were completely worsted. 1793 Ibid. II. 334/1 That famous horse Eclipse, whose excellence in speed, blood, pedigree, and progeny, will be, perhaps, transmitted to the end of time. 1817 J. Scott Paris Revisit. (ed. 4) 188 That quality which may be termed the nobility of animal nature; which is called blood, and game, in the inferior creatures. 1846 R. E. Egerton-Warburton Hunt. Songs, Gros-Veneur, In horses and hounds there is nothing like blood. 1859 Blackw. Mag. Sept. 269/1 The limbs..of a cleanness and beauty of outline enough alone to stamp blood on their possessor. 1895 C. B. Lowe Breeding Racehorses 180 He will always do best with a strong return to his stout Blacklock, Bird-catcher, and Glencoe blood. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXV. 190/2 When Shorthorn breeders of to-day talk of ‘Booth blood’, or of ‘Bates blood’, they refer to animals descended from the respective herds of Thomas Booth and Thomas Bates. |
c. attrib.,
esp. in
blood-horse (
q.v.). Also
ellipt. blood = blood-horse.
| 1794 Sporting Mag. IV. 31/1 He [sc. a race-horse] is now a stallion..at 3 gs a mare, and 5s. the groom, blood mares. 1818 Scott Rob Roy vii. A bit of a broken-down blood-tit condemned to drag an over-loaded cart. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. I. 228 A politely spoken highwayman on a blood mare. c 1865 R. Sullivan Lady Betty's Pocket-bk., A spark of quality, who drove four bloods. |
13. to restore in or to blood: to readmit to forfeited privileges of birth and rank those who by attainder of themselves or their ancestors lie under sentence of ‘corruption of blood’; see
attainder.
| 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iii. i. 159 Our pleasure is, That Richard be restored to his Blood. 1633 T. Stafford Pac. Hib. iii. (1821) 47 His Vncle Sir Edmond is not restored in blood. 1752 Johnson Rambl. No. 192 ¶7 A kind of restoration to blood after the attainder of trade. |
IV. A person.
† 14. [from 1.] One in whom blood flows, a living being.
Obs.| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 1192 A ðhusant plates of siluer god Gaf he sarra ðat faire blod. a 1300 Cursor M. 1055 Þis abel was a blissed blod. c 1314 Guy Warw. (1840) 154 Thou fel treytour, unkinde blod. 1382 Wyclif Deut. xxvii. 26 That he smyte the soule of the innocent blood. |
15. a. ‘A hot spark, a man of fire’ J.; a ‘buck’, a ‘fast’ or foppish man, rake, roisterer. [Generally appearing to arise out of sense 5, but in many cases associated with sense 12 as if
= aristocratic rowdy.]
Obs. in Great Britain except as a reminiscence of 18th
cent.| 1562 W. Bullein Sicke Men, &c. 73 a, A lustie blood, or a pleasaunte brave young roister. 1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 278 As many and as well-borne bloods as those. 1622 Bacon Hen. VII, 49 The Newes..put diuers Young Bloods into such a furie. 1749 H. Walpole Corr. (1837) I. 140 Anecdotes of the doctor's drinking, who, as the man told us, had been a blood. 1763 Brit. Mag. IV. 261 The buck and blood [suppose wisdom to consist] in breaking windows and knocking down watch⁓men. 1774 Goldsm. Author's Bed-Ch. 4 The drabs and bloods of Drury-lane. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. I. 341 I now..became a blood upon town. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair x, A perfect and celebrated ‘blood’ or dandy about town. 1882 Harper's Mag. Mar. 490 The [privateers] were commanded and manned by the bloods of the city [of New York]. |
b. ‘
young blood’ no longer implies a rake or ‘fast’ man, but simply a youthful member of a party, who brings to it youthful freshness and vigour;
cf. 8.
| 1862 Sat. Rev. 8 Feb. 159 To give the young bloods of the present day a notion of what the Northern Circuit was in the year 1825. 1885 Manch. Exam. 13 July 5/6 The younger bloods in the Irish party are looking forward with eager delight to the occurrence of a scene. |
c. At public schools and universities applied to those who are regarded as setting the fashion in habits and dress; also, a youthful member of a party, etc.
| 1892 Pall Mall Gaz. 8 Mar. 7/1 The result was that the new party won by 127 to 103... A great triumph for the Bloods—as we are accustomed to call them—who mustered in great force to defeat Mr. Childers. 1893 Granta 9 June 374/2 A Committee, consisting of a blood, a Girtonian, and a resident married M.A., shall supervise all flirtations. 1896 Ibid. 16 May 310/1 Mifflin and 'is friends talked..an' said 'ow much better Cambridge'd be if there wasn't no ‘bloods’ to spoil things. 1955 Times 25 Aug. 11/5 The rugger match dinner at the Trocadero with a select club of ‘bloods’. |
d. A passenger on a ship.
Ship's stewards' slang.
| 1929 Bowen Sea Slang 14 Bloods, the modern steward's name for the passengers—used only when they are regarded kindly. 1962 Harper's Bazaar Dec. 74/3 Stewards will help you... Behind your back they will call you a ‘blood’—..they themselves being ‘wingers’—and wonder how much ‘rent’ you will pay them at the end of the voyage. |
V. Technical senses.
† 16. A disease in sheep and in swine.
Obs.| 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §48 There is a sicknes among shepe..called the bloude. 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece iii. 495 The Blood in Sheep..we take to be a sort of Measles or Pox. Ibid. 501 The Blood in Swine, or the Gargut, as some call it. 1787 Winter Syst. Husb. 223 A disorder [in swine] generally called (in this part of the country) the blood. |
17. A commercial name for Red Coral.
| 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. iii. ii. 88 Five varieties of Coral are known in commerce..1, the Froth of Blood; 2nd the Flower of Blood; 3rd, 4th, and 5th, Blood of the first, second, and third quality. |
18. ellipt. = blood orange (see 19).
| 1907 N. Munro Daft Days i. 6 Oranges! Oranges!—rale New Year oranges, three a penny; bloods, a bawbee each! |
19. A North American Indian people belonging to the Blackfoot confederacy; a member of this people. Also
attrib.| 1794 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. (1810) 1st Ser. III. 24 The tribes of Indians which he passed through, were called..Blood Indians, the Blackfeet tribe..and several others. 1863 Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc. XII. 249 The Blackfeet inhabit a portion of country farther north than the Bloods. 1957 Encycl. Canadiana I. 403/1 Together with the Piegan and the Blood, they [sc. the Blackfoot] covered an enormous area of the western prairies and lower foothills of the Rockies. |
VI. Comb. and
attrib. 20. General combinations (These being formed at will, only a few samples are given):
a. attributive, as (sense 1)
blood-beat,
blood-circulation,
blood-clot,
blood-corpuscle,
blood-disease,
blood-drop,
blood-flow,
blood-freezer,
blood-gout,
blood-mark,
blood-spoor,
blood-spot,
blood-stream,
blood-supply,
blood-system; (senses 3, 4)
blood-compensation,
blood-field,
blood-revenge,
blood-rite,
blood-sacrifice,
blood-spirit,
blood-trade,
blood-value,
blood-vengeance; (sense 5)
blood-curdler; (senses 8, 9)
blood-affinity,
blood-bond,
blood-brother,
blood-brotherhood,
blood-covenant,
blood-descendants,
blood-feud,
blood-friend,
blood-kin,
blood-kinship,
blood-name,
blood-tie;
b. objective, with
pres. pple.,
n. of agent or action, as (sense 1)
blood-circulating,
blood-freezing,
blood-spiller,
blood-spilling,
blood-sprinkling,
blood-sweating; (senses 3–4)
blood-loving,
blood-monger,
blood-offering,
blood-seller,
blood-wreaker; (sense 5) as
blood-curdling,
blood-stirring (hence
blood-stirringness)
adjs.;
c. instrumental and locative, as (sense 1)
blood-bedabbled,
blood-besprinkled,
blood-bubbling,
blood-dabbled,
blood-discoloured,
blood-drenched,
blood-dyed,
blood-filled,
blood-flecked,
blood-frozen,
blood-gushing,
blood-masked,
blood-plashed,
blood-soaked,
blood-sodden,
blood-tinctured adjs.; (senses 3, 4)
blood-bought,
blood-cemented,
blood-defiled,
blood-fired,
blood-polluted adjs.;
d. parasynthetic and similative, as
blood-black,
blood-coloured,
blood-dark,
blood-faced,
blood-hued, etc. (Such combs. are especially common in the writings of D. H. Lawrence, as,
blood-being,
blood-bondage,
blood-consciousness, (also
blood-conscious),
blood-desire,
blood-knowing,
blood-knowledge,
blood-passion,
blood-pride,
blood-soul.)
| 1865 Tylor Early Hist. Man. x. 278 The seventh degree of *blood-affinity is the limit. |
| 1947 E. Sitwell Shadow of Cain 11 The *blood-beat of the Bird. |
| 1621 Quarles Argalus & P. (1678) 119 She prostrate lay Before their *blood-bedabled feet. 1895 Yeats Poems 22 Along the blood-bedabbled plains. |
| 1915 D. H. Lawrence Let. 8 Dec. (1962) 394 All living things, even plants, have a *blood-being. If a lizard falls on the breast of a pregnant woman, then the blood-being of the lizard passes with a shock into the blood-being of the woman, and is transferred to the foetus... We have a blood-being, a blood-consciousness, a blood-soul, complete and apart from the mental and nerve consciousness. |
| 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, v. i. 117 O *blood-bespotted Neopolitan. |
| 1601 R. Yarington Two Lament. Traj. ii. v. in Bullen O. Pl. IV, His dissevered *blood-besprinkled lims. |
| a 1918 W. Owen Poems (1963) 69 Sunlight seems a blood-smear; night comes *blood-black. |
| 1645 Rutherford Tryal & Tr. Faith (1845) 178 *Blood-bonds, nature-relations are mighty. |
| 1926 D. H. Lawrence Plumed Serpent ix. 154 And there was a thin little thread of *blood-bondage between them. |
| 1779 Cowper Hymn, ‘There is a Fountain’, A *blood-bought free reward. |
| 1879 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. IV. 668/1 In which [apartment] are located the *blood-circulating organs. |
| 1818 Carlyle Sart. Res. iii. vii, A *blood-circulation, visible to the eye. |
| 1859 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. V. 562/2 The *blood-clot..generally found contained within the ruptured airsac. |
| 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) V. 97 A *blood-coloured ribband with Death's head, swords, &c. |
| 1958 Middleton & Tait Tribes without Rulers 27 Such features are..chiefship, *blood-compensation and non-empirical, religious sanctions. |
| 1923 D. H. Lawrence Stud. Class. Amer. Lit. vii. 126 They [sc. Americans] admire the *blood-conscious spontaneity. |
| 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. ii. 61 Might..*blood-consuming sighes recall his Life. |
| 1886 Encycl. Brit. XXI. 137/2 The sacramental rites of mystical sacrifice are a form of *blood-covenant. |
| 1889 Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang s.v., It will contain..a *blood-curdler, by the murder-man. 1906 E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands xv. 197 That one yowl was er blood-curdler. |
| 1934 Essays & Stud. XIX. 13 The *blood-curdling nature of the cry. |
| 1904 W. H. Hudson Green Mansions xxi. 306 Cla-cla's wrinkled dead face and white, *blood-dabbled locks. |
| 1885 Yeats in Dublin Univ. Rev. July, A star-lit rapier, half *blood-dark. 1958 R. S. Thomas Poetry for Supper 38 You were born on a blood-dark tide. |
| 1930 D. H. Lawrence A Propos of Lady Chatterley's Lover 46 The two blood-streams are brought into contact, in man and woman, just the same as in the urge of blood-passion and *blood-desire. |
| 1875 B. Taylor Faust II. iii. 171 With *blood-discolored eyes. |
| 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 557/1 Anaemia is often used as a generic term for all *blood diseases. |
| c 1390, a 1400 *Blood-drop [in M.E.D.] 1823 Byron Island iii. iv, Blood-drops, sprinkled o'er his yellow hair. 1923 D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 91 Away with a pæan of derision You winged blood-drop. |
| 1873 Symonds Grk. Poets vii. 227 Hound not Those *blood-faced, snake-encircled women on me. |
| 1858 Froude Hist. Eng. IV. xviii. 8 A *blood-feud, deep and ineffaceable divided the Douglases and the Hamiltons. |
| 1535 Coverdale Matt. xxvii. 8 Wherfore the same felde is called the *bloudfelde vnto this daye. |
| 1645 G. Daniel Poems Wks. 1878 II. 9 Though the *blood-fir'd Ruffian, rageing come. |
| 1873 T. H. Green Introd. Path. (ed. 2) 329 Thrombosis from Retardation of the *Blood-flow. |
| 1886 H. Baumann Londinismen 12/1 *Blood-freezer..Schauerroman. 1902 W. James Var. Relig. Exper. vi. 162 The grisly *blood-freezing heart-palsying sensation of it [sc. evil] close upon one. |
| 1596 Spenser F.Q. i. ix. 25 Yet nathëmore..Could his *blood-frozen heart emboldned bee. |
| 1800 *Bloud-gout [see gout n.1 5 a]. 1952 R. Campbell tr. Poems of Baudelaire 45 Sabres bleak With crimson blood-gouts lit the air above. |
| a 1711 Ken Hy. Evang. Poet. Wks. 1721 I. 57 *Blood-gushing Veins. |
| a 1849 J. C. Mangan Poems (1859) 121 That lone flower, *blood-hued at heart. |
| 1535 Coverdale Mark v. 25 There was a woman which has a *bloudeyssue twelue yeares. |
| 1880 ‘Mark Twain’ Tramp Abroad 173 The seven hundred inhabitants are all *blood-kin to each other. 1937 R. H. Lowie Hist. Ethnol. Theory vi. 65 The classification of kin survives from a period in which the closest blood-kin regularly cohabited. |
| 1883 A. Lang in Contemp. Rev. Sept. 410 Exogamy is the prohibition of marriage within the supposed *blood-kinship, as denoted by the family name. |
| 1915 D. H. Lawrence Let. 8 Dec. (1962) I. 394 When I take a woman, then the blood-percept is supreme, my *blood-knowing is overwhelming. Ibid., Some tribes no doubt really were kangaroos; they contained the *blood-knowledge of the kangaroo. |
| 1827 Byron Sardan. i. ii. 238 That *blood-loving beldame, My martial grandam, chaste Semiramis. |
| 1928 Blunden Undertones of War 5 Others lay near him, also *bloodmasked. |
| 1858 Gladstone Homer I. 163 In the fourth and fifth of the divisions in the Trojan Catalogue Homer specifies no *blood-name or name of race whatever. |
| 1725 Pope Odyss. i. 40 A *blood-polluted Ghost. |
| 1923 D. H. Lawrence Kangaroo xvii. 367 The brave, silent *blood-pride. 1932 W. Faulkner Light in August (1933) i. 4 The bleak heritage of his bloodpride. |
| 1855 R. Martineau tr. Gregorovius's Corsica i. x. 144 Many a case is known of one bandit having..slain another..for *blood-revenge. 1877 Gentl. Mag. Apr. 478 The vendetta or duty of blood-revenge. |
| 1602 Warner Alb. Eng. xi. lxv. 279 Not of the Samoeds..*blood-Rites wil we tarry. |
| 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI v. iii. 20 Cannot my body, nor *blood-sacrifice, Intreate you to your wonted furtherance? 1866 Swinburne Poems & Ballads 70 With offering and blood-sacrifice of tears. |
| 1801 Moore Ring lvi. 221 He saw the *blood-scrawled name. |
| 1905 Daily Chron. 16 Jan. 3/4 A staggering, *blood-soaked figure. |
| 1929 Yeats Winding Stair 11 The heart in his *blood-sodden breast. |
| a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. III. xi. 204 They had..terrified the People with *Blood-Spectacles. |
| 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxvi, Honour is a homicide and a *blood-spiller. |
| 1585 Abp. Sandys Serm. (1841) 257 We shall behold nothing but rape, spoil, *blood-spilling. |
| 1861 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. III. cxliv. 128 Keeping down the *blood-spirit unhappily inherent in all mankind. |
| 1863 W. C. Baldwin Afr. Hunting v. 129 The *blood-spoor of one of the wounded koodoos. |
| 1860 G. H. K. Vac. Tour 118 There is many a broad *blood-spot in your country. |
| 1880 Saintsbury in Academy 4 Dec. 397 This same quality of *blood-stirringness. |
| c 1205 Lay. 28359 Ȝurren þa stanes mid þan *blod⁓stremes. |
| 1884 J. L. Corning Brain Exhaustion ii. 45 The demands of an abnormally developed muscular system upon an already insufficient *blood-supply. 1962 Lancet 2 June 1166/2 The blood-supply to the central nervous system. |
| c 1240 Lofsong in Lamb. Hom. 207 In his *blodswetunge. |
| 1912 J. S. Huxley Indiv. in Animal Kingdom ii. 63 Cyclosis..performs the same general functions for the organism as does a *blood-system. |
| 1876 J. F. McLennan Stud. Anc. Hist. ii. ii. 373 The system of *blood-ties and the system of addresses would begin to grow up together. 1965 G. McInnes Road to Gundagai xvi. 282 The call of the Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Celtic bloodties. |
| 1860 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. III. ci. 2 It is all the same where the war is, so the *blood-trade flourishes. |
| 1880 Browning Muleykeh 9 Ten thousand camels the due, *Blood-value paid perforce for a murder done of old. |
| 1893 Funk's Standard Dict., *Blood-vengeance. 1926 A. M{obar}ller tr. Pedersen's Israel I. ii. 269 Blood-vengeance, which in its old form is one of the most pronounced outcomes of the solidarity of the family. |
| 1382 Wyclif Josh. xx. 5 Whanne the *bloodwreker hym pursue. |
21. Special comb.:
blood agar Bacteriol., a culture medium containing blood and nutrient agar;
blood-alley [
ally n.2], a boy's white marble marked with red spiral lines;
† blood-band, a bandage for stopping bleeding;
blood-bank, a place where a supply of blood for transfusion is stored (
cf. bank n.3 7 f); also, a reserve of blood so stored;
blood-baptism, in reference to the early Christians, the martyrdom of converts who had not been baptized;
blood-bath, ‘a bath in warm blood{ddd}supposed to be a very powerful tonic in great debility from long-continued diseases, etc.’ (
Syd. Soc. Lex. s.v. Bath); also (as in
Ger.,
Du.,
Da.,
Sw.) a wholesale slaughter, a massacre;
blood-bay a., a reddish bay (colour);
blood-beet, the red beet-root;
blood-boat (see
quot. 1914); also
attrib.;
† blood-boltered ppl. a., clotted or clogged with blood,
esp. having the hair matted with blood; [see
balter];
blood-brother, (
a) a brother by birth; (
b) one who has been bound to another in solemn friendship by a ceremonial mingling of blood; so
blood-brotherhood; also
fig.;
† blood-bulk (
cf. bulk);
blood cell, any of the cells or cell-types that circulate in the blood;
blood chit colloq. (see
quots.);
blood count, (the determination of) the number of blood cells contained in a given volume of blood;
† blood-craft, murderous plot;
blood culture [
culture n. 3 c]
Bacteriol., a culture of a sample of blood to detect micro-organisms in it;
blood disc, a red blood-corpuscle; also
= blood-plaque;
blood donor, one who gives blood for transfusion;
blood-drinker, a primitive savage who killed and feasted on his ‘kill’;
fig. one who has a lust for blood;
blood-drinking a., that drinks blood; also
fig.;
blood dust, a collective name for the minute refractive bodies found floating free in the blood plasma;
blood-eagle [
ON. blóð-ǫrn], a Viking method of killing someone, usually the slayer of a man's father, by cutting out the ribs in the shape of an eagle;
† blood-eyes, blood-shot eyes;
blood film, a smear of blood (
cf. smear n. 3 b);
blood-fine, a fine paid as whole or part compensation for murder;
blood-flower (
Bot.),
Hæmanthus;
blood fluke [
fluke n.1 2],
= schistosome;
blood-frenzy, a frenzy for shedding blood, homicidal mania;
blood-gas, the gas or gases present in the blood; also
attrib.;
blood-groove, a groove cut in the head or the shaft of an arrow or spear, supposed to increase the flow of blood from the wound made by the weapon;
blood group, one of the genetically determined types into which human blood may be divided on the basis of its compatibility with the blood of other individuals;
esp. one of the four original red cell groups;
blood grouping, the determination of the blood group of a person or of a sample of blood; also
= blood group;
blood-hot, excited for bloodshed;
† blood-hunter, one who tracks the authors of crimes of blood, one who tracks criminals;
blood-knot, a knot tied in a rope to draw blood when it is used as a whip;
blood line = line n.2 24, 25; (see also
quot. 1909);
blood-lust, lust for the shedding of blood;
blood meal [G.
blutmehl], dried blood used for feeding animals and as a fertilizer;
ˈblood-mobile [formed after
automobile n.]
U.S. (see
quot. 1961);
blood orange, a variety of orange having the pulp streaked with red; earlier
blood-red orange;
blood pheasant, a species of pheasant (see
quot. 1864) marked with red on the throat and breast;
blood picture, (
a) (see
quot. 1881)
disused; (
b) the condition of the blood as determined by chemical or microscopical analysis;
blood plaque,
plate,
platelet, a minute disc-shaped body found in large numbers in mammalian blood;
blood plasma, the fluid part of the blood in which the cells and platelets are suspended (Billings 1890);
blood plum: see
plum n. 3 b;
blood-poisoning, a morbid condition of the blood formerly thought to be caused by the absorption of putrefying matter but now recognized as being due to infection;
spec., septicæmia or pyæmia;
blood pressure, the pressure of circulating blood on the walls of the blood-vessels,
esp. the systemic arteries;
blood pudding, a black-pudding; also
transf.;
blood-pump, (
a) see
quot. 1902; (
b)
Pugilistic slang, the heart;
blood purge, one that is achieved by bloodshed; also
fig.;
blood-rain, rain which has acquired a red colour; also an appearance produced by the rapid growth of a minute plant which has been referred to the Algæ,
Palmella prodigiosa (
Treas. Bot.);
blood-raw a., (of meat) so lightly cooked that the blood remains red and liquid;
blood-red orange = blood orange;
blood-ripe a., (of fruit) so ripe that the juice has become blood-coloured, hence
blood-ripeness;
† blood-run a., bloodshot;
blood-sausage, a black-pudding;
† blood-shrunk a., having the blood or vital principle dried up, withered;
blood-sister, a woman bound to another in the same manner as blood-brothers (see also
quot. 1933); so
blood-sisterhood;
blood sports n. pl., sports involving the killing of animals,
esp. sports of the chase;
blood-stick (see
quot.);
blood-stream, the stream of blood circulating through the human or animal system;
blood-striking, a disease incident to cattle (see
striking vbl. n. 2 b);
blood sugar, glucose contained in the blood;
blood-tax fig., a tax paid by bloodshed;
spec. a derogatory term for military conscription;
blood test, a test performed on blood for some specific purpose; also
fig.; hence
blood-tested adj.;
blood transfusion = transfusion 2; also
attrib. and
fig.;
blood-tree (
Bot.),
Croton gossypiifolium;
blood-tub slang,
† (
a), a rough or rowdy (
U.S. obs.); (
b) a theatre presenting lurid melodrama;
blood type = blood group; hence
blood-typing vbl. n. and
attrib.;
blood-urea, the concentration of urea in the blood;
blood-vein, a kind of moth (
Bradyepetes amataria);
blood wagon slang, an ambulance (see also
quot. 1969);
blood-wealth Anthrop., money or goods given as compensation for a murder;
† blood-weed (
Bot.), a species of
Polygonum;
† blood-wipe, a wound, also a kind of small club or truncheon;
blood-wood; a name applied to several foreign trees,
e.g. in Jamaica
Gordonia hæmatoxylon, in Norfolk Island
Baloghia lucida, in Australia various species of
Eucalyptus, in India
Lagerstrœmia reginæ;
blood-worthy a., sufficient to warrant bloodshed;
blood-wound, a wound from which blood flows, as distinguished from one in which the skin is not broken.
| 1899 T. Bowhill Man. Bacteriol. Technique ii. 54 (heading) *Blood Agar. 1927 R. A. Kelser Man. Vet. Bacteriol. v. 57 Blood Agar. Add 10 per cent of sterile defibrinated horse, sheep or rabbit blood to a definite amount of sterile nutrient agar..which has been completely melted and allowed to cool to 45° C. |
| 1854 A. E. Baker Gloss. Northampt. Words 10 *Blood alleys. 1881 A. B. Evans Leic. Words 91 If streaked with red veins it is called a ‘blood alley’. 1963 C. Mackenzie Life & Times II. 49 A blood alley was a pinkish stone with some deeper pink markings. |
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 420 Ne *blod-bendes of seolke. a 1400 Morte Arth. 2576 Us bus have a blodebande. |
| 1938 N.Y. Post Digest April 23/1 Bellevue and Kings County Hospitals in New York have now followed the lead of Chicago and Philadelphia hospitals in the establishment of ‘*blood banks’. 1942 Times of India 2 May 6/2 The appeal..for blood donors to come forward and contribute to the blood bank which has been opened in the city. |
| 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. vi. iii. 277 A Great Personage worn out by debauchery was believed to be in want of *Blood-baths. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. I. vi. 454 The marriages of Emma would seem to have required a blood-bath as their necessary attendant. |
| 1709 Lond. Gaz. No. 4521/4 Stoln..a *blood-bay Mare. |
| 1829 Free Press (Tarboro, N.C.) 20 Feb., *Blood Beets. 1831 Peck Guide for Emigrants ii. 141 The blood beet [is] less deeply colored. |
| 1889 Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang, *Blood boat (naval). 1899 Bullen Log Sea-Waif 230 Half the crew..looked as if all the ways of ‘Western Ocean blood-boats’ were familiar to them. 1914 Ld. C. Beresford Mem. I. i. 2, I was only the ‘blood-boat’ (the jolly-boat bringing beef to the ship) midshipman of a man-of-war. |
| 1605 Shakes. Macb. iv. i. 123 Now I see 'tis true, For the *Blood-bolter'd Banquo smiles vpon me. 1848 Miller First Impr. ii. (1857) 23 The old blood-boltered barons. |
| 1890 Ld. Lugard Diary 7 Oct. (1959) I. 314 His camp..where Dualla had *blood brothers. 1933 E. E. Evans-Pritchard in Africa VI. 370 If you exchange blood with a member of the Akowe clan all other members of this clan rank as your blood-brothers. |
| 1885 H. M. Stanley Congo Free State II. xxvi. 23 The next day we made *blood brotherhood. The fetish-man pricked each of our right arms, pressed the blood out..and the black and white arms were mutually rubbed together. 1909 Daily Chron. 11 Sept. 4/6 His Majesty..will doubtless..drink a toast or two with especial reference to that blood-brotherhood between the two nations. 1937 E. Snow Red Star over China v. 195 They swore blood brotherhood in the tribal manner. |
| 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1596) 711/1 His *bloudbulke was broken by reason they had so vily beaten him and brused him. 1575 Turberv. Bk. Venerie 129 Up to the mydryffe betweene the Bloudboulke and the sides. |
| 1846 T. W. Jones in Philos. Trans. R. Soc. CXXXVI. 65 The red oval corpuscle of the blood of the Skate under consideration, I propose to name nucleated blood-cell, in contradistinction to the granule-cell, which..in consequence of its being filled with granules is otherwise well designated granule *blood-cell. 1866 Aitken Pract. Med. (ed. 4) II. 57 Salts..in which the blood-cells ultimately become deficient. 1878 F. J. Bell tr. Gegenbaur's Comp. Anat. 172 In many Nemertina the blood-cells have a red colour. |
| 1943 C. H. Ward-Jackson Piece of Cake 15 *Blood chit, any written authorisation supplied to an individual to ‘cover’ him; or, more originally, a ransom note supplied to pilots over possibly hostile territory in the East. 1954 Neuphilologische Mitteilungen LV. 47 Blood-chit, ‘document, signed by a non-R.A.F. passenger before a flight, which exonerates the R.A.F. in the event that they damage or destroy him’. |
| 1900 Dorland Med. Dict., *Blood-count. 1907 Practitioner Dec. 852 A blood-count, made two years ago, showed: Red cells, 5,000,000 [etc.]. 1947 Mind LVI. 246 Healthy children with a normal red blood count. |
| 1561 J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 225 b, Fornications, wonderful surfetting, *bloudcraftes and counselles. |
| 1899 Jrnl. Exper. Med. IV. 429 *Blood cultures made in cases of pneumonia..indicate..a general blood invasion. 1963 Lancet 5 Jan. 55/2 Blood-cultures were negative. |
| 1840 Philos. Trans. R. Soc. CXXX. 596 Whether the globules into which the *blood-disc resolves itself, are the foundations of new corpuscles of the blood, I do not know. 1845 Todd & Bowman Phys. Anat. I. 60 Certain particles, the blood-discs, which float in it [sc. the blood] in great numbers. 1879 Jrnl. Anat. & Physiol. XIV. 295 All cells..from which red blood-discs may spring. |
| 1921 Lancet 26 Nov. 1123/1 In a recent number of the Guy's Hospital Gazette the editor protests against the too free use of students as *blood-donors. 1958 Times 7 July xxi/4 The unselfish help of many thousands of voluntary blood donors. 1968 Brit. Med. Bull. XXIV. 210/2 Histograms of readings of serum chloride and urea taken from 1,000 blood donors are shown. |
| 1898 Meredith Odes Fr. Hist. 16 The *blood-drinker's madness fast upon her. 1899 Daily News 28 June 8/4 The primitive ‘food group’ of hunters, who, like the beasts they killed, were ‘blood-drinkers’. |
| 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. ii. iii. 224 In this detested, darke, *blood-drinking pit. 1591 ― 1 Hen. VI ii. iv. 108 My blood-drinking hate. 1903 Edin. Rev. Oct. 307 Blood-drinking savages. |
| 1900 Dorland Med. Dict. s.v. Blood, *Blood-dust, or hemoconiæ. |
| 1839 G. Stephens tr. Tegnér's Frithiof's Saga xvi. 158 *Blood-eagle lines on Thy foe shall be flowing. 1922 Cambr. Med. Hist. III. xiii. 329 Cutting the blood-eagle in the back of the fallen foe is well known from the vengeance for their father taken by the sons of Ragnarr Loðbrók. 1964 G. Turville-Petre Myth & Religion of North xiii. 254 A peculiarly revolting form of human sacrifice was that of cutting the ‘blood-eagle’ (blóðǫrn rista). The ribs were cut from the back and the lungs drawn out. |
| 1607 Topsell Serpents 695 An Eye-salve against the whitenesse and *bloud⁓eyes. |
| 1904 *Blood film [see smear n. 3 b]. 1961 Lancet 5 Aug. 315/1 To stain a blood-film the solution is added drop by drop till it entirely covers it. |
| 1851 Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. I. 489 The Were or *bloodfine for every Dane who had been killed. |
| 1872 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 27 July 89/1 She was suffering from the effects of an invasion by the African *blood-fluke, a parasite now generally recognized by the generic and specific title of Bilharzia hæmatobia. 1962 New Scientist 6 Sept. 490/3 The disease known as bilharziasis, caused by three species of bloodflukes or schistosomes, is carried by various types of water snail. |
| 1880 Burton Reign Q. Anne III. xv. 80 The *blood-frenzy called in the East running amuck. |
| 1908 J. Barcroft in Jrnl. Physiol. XXXVII. 12 (title) Differential Method in *Blood-Gas Analysis. 1922 J. S. Haldane Respiration i. 11 Careful blood-gas determinations showed that when apnoea had been produced by forced ventilation of the lungs the arterial blood contained..more oxygen. 1966 Lancet 24 Dec. 1394/2 The hypothetical absorption of significant amounts of oxygen from the skin or upper respiratory tract has never been substantiated by arterial blood-gas measurements. |
| 1897 Geogr. Jrnl. X. 156 Arrowheads and spears, many of them curiously barbed and twisted, and some showing a knowledge of the value of the ‘*blood-groove’. |
| 1916 W. V. Brem in Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. LXVII. 190/2 Isohemolysins cannot be used, therefore, in determining *blood groups. 1917 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 24 Nov. 696 The selection of an ideal donor—that is, one belonging to the same blood group as the patient—may be made. 1935 Huxley & Haddon We Europ. iv. 127 We plot the distribution of the three blood-group genes on a map. 1958 Listener 28 Aug. 320/2 It is now thought to be possible to discover the blood groups of ancient peoples from their bones. |
| 1916 W. V. Brem in Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. LXVII. 190/2 We have been able to modify the technic of *blood grouping so that it can be done easily and accurately within a few moments' time. 1962 Lancet 15 Dec. 1279/2 In 16·6% of myoadenoma patients and 11·0% of the carcinoma patients the blood-grouping was not recorded. |
| 1865 Kingsley Herew. xviii. 227 He would not allow his men to enter the city while they were *bloodhot. |
| 1794 Godwin Cal. Williams 262 The sordid and mechanical occupation of a *blood-hunter. |
| 1901 ‘L. Malet’ Hist. Sir R. Calmady iii. viii. 233 *Blood-knots in the whip-lash. 1910 J. Masefield Lost Endeavour i. iv. 45 A ‘teaser’, or blood-knot of hard, tarred spunyarn. 1968 E. Franklin Dict. Knots 9 Blood knot, a multiple Overhand Knot tied in the end of a rope{ddd}used as a weapon or for inflicting punishment. |
| 1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl., *Blood line, a particular transmissible character in an animal, or, analogically, in a plant. 1927 Daily Tel. 6 Dec. 9/1 [The steer] reflected his excellent bloodline descent in his shapely contour. 1948 C. L. B. Hubbard Dogs in Britain 31 He [sc. the breeder] will doubtless endeavour to improve or alter his blood-lines as the necessities arise. |
| 1848 Lytton Harold I. iii. ii. 175 Hear me, thou with the vulture's *blood-lust. 1942 Wyndham Lewis Let. 25 Oct. (1963) 338 He [a soldier] would be disgusted and amazed to find us all foaming at the mouth, our eyes full of bloodlust. |
| 1887 F. H. Storer Agric. Rel. with Chem. I. xiv. 399 Nitrate of soda and horn-meal did well, and fermented *blood-meal also. Ibid. 383 Fresh blood is made to separate into liquid serum..and into a solid clot, which, when dried and ground, is the substance used as a fertilizer and known as dried blood or blood-meal. 1956 Gillespie & Hathway Textbk. Gen. Agric. xvii. 225 Blood-meal, another residue from the slaughterhouse, is a favourite ingredient of rations for pigs and poultry. |
| 1948 Sci. News Let. 10 July 26 (caption) Red Cross *Bloodmobile. 1961 Guardian 28 Jan. 12/7 ‘An automobile equipped for collecting blood from volunteer donors’..bloodmobile. |
| 1855 E. Acton Mod. Cookery xxviii. 571 Tangerine Oranges... There is another variety of this fruit known commonly as the *blood-orange. 1862 Hereman Vine & Fruit Tree Cultiv. 43 Maltese Blood Oranges. 1892 Granta 14 May 321/1 The piles of blood oranges were diminishing rapidly, |
| 1864 Jerdon Birds India III. 522 Ithaginis cruentus..the Green *Blood-Pheasant. 1884 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 341/1 Among the birds [of Nepal] are..the blood pheasant (Ithaginis cruentus),..&c. 1964 E. P. Gee Wild Life India xiv. 117 All along that magnificent country in Sikkim, Bhutan and N.E.F.A... Marvellous birds, including horned, monal and blood pheasants, live up there. |
| 1881 Syd. Soc. Lex. I, *Blood pictures, the network formed by the adhesion of the red corpuscles to each other on a slide under the microscope, and supposed to be of a different pattern in human blood to that formed in the blood of other animals. 1908 Practitioner Feb. 234 The blood-picture of pernicious anaemia is presented. 1961 Lancet 16 Sept. 617/1 The blood-picture returned gradually to normal in seven days. |
| 1889 Buck's Handbk. Med. Sci. VIII. 626/2 *Blood-plaques, methods of studying. |
| 1907 Practitioner Aug. 195 The alkalinity of the inorganic constituents of the *blood-plasma is increased in cancer. 1945 Daily Tel. 3 July, Administering penicillin and blood plasma. |
| 1885 Buck's Handbk. Med. Sci. I. 554/1 The *blood-plates are not products of the degeneration of white corpuscles. |
| 1898 W. S. L. Barlow Gen. Pathol. 153 The number of *blood-platelets in normal blood has been variously estimated from 180,000 to 500,000 per cubic millimetre. 1962 Lancet 22 Dec. 1316/1 The part that blood-platelets play in stopping bleeding from an injured blood-vessel is now well established. |
| 1863 Illustr. Times 17 Oct. 243 The alleged cases of ‘*blood-poisoning’ in Bethnal Green. 1886 Encycl. Brit. XXI. 666/2 After a wound..blood-poisoning may occur. |
| 1874 Garrod Mat. Med. (ed. 4) 123 Small doses raise the *blood-pressure. 1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIV. 97/2 The blood-pressure gradually diminishes from the heart to the periphery. 1919 Wodehouse Damsel in Distress iv, His blood-pressure at a far higher figure than his doctor would have approved of. |
| 1583 Plat Divers new Exper. (1594) 13 Boile this bloud..until it come to the nature and shape of a *bloudpudding. 1741 Richardson Pamela I. 94, I hope to make my hands as red as a Blood-pudden. 1916 D. H. Lawrence Lett. (1962) I. 492 We have read the ‘Cavalleria Rusticana’: a veritable blood-pudding of passion! |
| 1898 Daily News 15 Nov. 8/4 Ryan [i.e. a boxer] kept to work at his little target over the *blood-pump. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXX. 379/1 For the purpose of his researches on the gases in the blood, he [sc. C. F. W. Ludwig] designed the mercurial blood-pump. |
| 1935 Mind XLIV. 438 This *blood-purge in philosphy must rest..with the logical positivists. 1959 Encounter July 78/1 The murderous days of the blood-purges. |
| 1866 Berkeley in Treas. Bot. I. 150 One curious point about the fungous *Bloodrain..when cultivated on rice paste. 1882 Geikie Text-bk. Geol. iii. ii. i. §2. 326 Rain falling through such a dust-cloud mixes with it, and..is popularly called blood-rain. |
| c 1590 Marlowe Faust. iv. 9 He would give his soul to the devil for a shoulder of mutton though it were *blood-raw. |
| 1838 Loudon Arbor. et Fruticetum Brit. I. 396 The kinds are, the common, Seville, and *blood-red orange. |
| 1871 M. Collins Mrq. & Merch. III. xi. 249 An aged mulberry-tree..overladen with *blood-ripe fruit. |
| 1826 E. Irving Babylon II. 325 The vine of the earth, which hath brought her grapes to *blood-ripeness. |
| a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. II. vii. 342 When the eyes of the mind, no more *blood-run with passion, did discern things right. |
| 1868 W. James Let. 4 Mar. (1920) I. 136 The sausages (liver sausages, *blood sausages, and more). 1965 House & Garden Jan. 60 Some blood sausages are cooked and cured and ready to eat; others must be grilled. |
| 1634 Ford Perkin Warb. i. i. (1839) 99 Sending to this *blood-shrunk commonwealth A new soul. |
| 1933 E. E. Evans-Pritchard in Africa VI. 370 The term nakurëmi, my *blood-sister, is occasionally used for the wife of a blood-brother. 1957 V. W. Turner Schism & Continuity x. 307 A special form of friendship similar to blood-brotherhood and *blood-sisterhood. |
| 1895 Humanity Oct. 58 If a poll could be taken, we believe that *blood sports would be condemned by a larger number of persons than could be mustered on any other humanitarian issue. 1937 Discovery July 226/1 He has tended to limit his blood-sports. |
| 1872 Youatt Horse xxii. 458 A *blood-stick—a piece of hard wood loaded at one end with lead—is used to strike the fleam into the vein. |
| 1873 T. H. Green Introd. Pathol. (ed. 2) 109 The reproduction of the malignant growth in distant tissues is..owing to the entry of its elements into the *blood-stream. 1913 Field 30 Aug. 493/3 Infection does not impair the health of the cow... The responsible organism gets into the blood stream both by the alimentary and genital tracts. 1928 Daily Express 6 June 5/3 Alkaline citrates, which are changed into alkaline carbonates in the blood stream. |
| 1834 Youatt Cattle xi. 356 Inflammatory fever..is termed..*blood-striking, shewt of blood, &c. 1861 Blood-striking [see striking vbl. n. 2 b]. |
| 1927 Haldane & Huxley Anim. Biol. vii. 156 A dose of 100 grams will make the *blood-sugar rise above 0.17 per cent. 1961 Times 22 Dec. 5/7 Insulin reduces the blood-sugar level. |
| 1890 H. P. Hughes Philanthropy of God v. 75 France is the mother of Conscription. What has she gained by that *blood-tax? 1901 Shee Briton's 1st Duty 250, I appeal to the working men of Great Britain..not to be misled by catch⁓phrases about ‘the liberty of the subject’ and the ridiculous cant about a ‘Blood Tax’! 1910 W. James Mem. & Stud. (1911) xi. 291 They would have paid their blood-tax, done their own part in the immemorial human warfare against nature. |
| 1912 Kipling As Easy as ABC 4 Democracy is Disease. I've proved it by the *blood-test, every time. 1969 Times 27 Jan. 10/8 Blood tests will be required from all except fully credited herds. |
| 1960 Farmer & Stock-breeder 2 Feb. 132/1 All our chicks are bred from 100% *blood-tested breeding stock. |
| 1879 E. A. Schäfer in Med. Times & Gaz. 702 (title) Report..to determine..by what methods the operation of *blood-transfusion may best be performed. 1916 Lancet 2 Sept. 429/2 (title) Employment of blood transfusion in war surgery. 1943 Ann. Reg. 1942 354 The blood transfusion service revealed interesting differences in the blood grouping of people of various localities. 1958 Times 1 July vii/3 British agriculture has long benefited by money earned in industry being reinvested in the form of capital equipment for farm land. It may be that forestry will benefit..by a similar blood transfusion. |
| 1885 A. Brassey The Trades 112 The *blood-tree..when wounded, sends forth a juice like blood. |
| 1861 in F. Moore Rebellion Rec. (1862) I. iii. 73/1 ‘*Blood-tubs’ and ‘Plug-Uglies’, and others galore, Are sick for a thrashing in sweet Baltimore. 1910 A. Bennett Clayhanger ii. ii. §1, The Bulgarian Atrocities had served to give new life to all penny gaffs and blood-tubs. 1963 Times 25 Apr. 16/2 In its 145 years of life..making successive come-backs as a burlesque house, a home of melodrama, a notorious blood-tub, and a centre of moral uplift. |
| 1932 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. XCIX. 2129/1 There are particular features in the distribution of the *blood types among athletes. |
| 1928 Jrnl. Laboratory & Clin. Med. XIII. 774 (caption) *Blood-typing plate. Ibid. 774 The macroscopic slide agglutination method of blood typing is considered. 1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 8 Mar. 101/1 Blood typing, protein typing and the use of genetic markers may revolutionize sire selection in the seventies. |
| 1915 Jrnl. Exper. Med. XXII. 213 When the *blood urea remains constant the rate times the square root of the concentration in the urine remains constant. Ibid. 231 A comparison of the chloride results with the blood urea figures. 1966 Lancet 24 Dec. 1384/2 Blood-urea 55 mg. per 100 ml. |
| 1802 J. Rennie Butterflies and M. 115 The *Blood Vein..appears at the end of June. |
| 1922 Flight XIV. 34/2 ‘The old *blood wagon’, as the air ambulance..was generally called. 1957 S. Moss In Track of Speed vi. 82 Out came the ‘blood wagon’ and back to the ambulance station in the paddock I went. 1969 R. Petrie Despatch of Dove iii. 152 A full-length stretcher sledge. A blood-wagon, as the laconic skiers dub it. |
| 1951 E. E. Evans-Pritchard Kinship among Nuer iii. 98 *Blood-wealth, the payment of cattle in compensation for homicide. |
| 1611 Cotgr., Playe, a wound, *bloudwipe, sore cut. 1661 Ray Itin. (1760) 144 A small Mace for the Water-Bailiff; also another little one called the Blood-wipe, which they use in parting of Frays. |
| 1724 in F. Moore Trav. Inner Afr. (1738) 267, I shall now describe the Pau de Sangue, or *Bloodwood, so call'd from a Red Gum which issues from it. 1880 Silver Handbk. Australia 275 Blood-wood and turpentine both hard and durable. |
| 1828 Southey in Q. Rev. XXXVIII. 575 In their opinion, the differences between the Roman Catholic and the Protestant are what they call *bloodworthy. |
| 1841 Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) III. 238 The bodies of both..were unscathed by fire or powder, and..no *blood-wound appeared on either. |
Add:
[III.] [8.] b. ‘new blood’ post U.K., a post created under a Government scheme for the recruitment of new entrants to university teaching at a time of generally low staff turn-over.
| 1984 Economist 4 Feb. 36/2 In the universities, Sir Keith has been responsible for..schemes to channel funds into..‘new blood’ posts (to make up for the worst effects on recruitment of three years of university cuts). 1986 Times Higher Educ. Suppl. 13 June 36/2 Much more would be needed if the Government..wished to pursue particular initiatives like a second injection of ‘new blood’ posts. |
Add:
[VI.] [20.] [a.] (In sense 1)
blood-sample.
| 1950 Sci. News XV. 106 In no case did the serum agglutinate the red cells which came from the same *blood sample. 1983 Oxf. Textbk. Med. I. ix. 5/1 It is better..if the GP immediately takes a blood sample for blood glucose estimation. |
▸
blood-chilling adj. (
hyperbolically) such as to make the blood run cold;
spec. terrifying, horrifying; (later also,
esp. humorously, in weakened sense) awful, dismal.
| 1771 L. Lewis Serm. Preach'd at New Meeting House 12 The horrid, *blood-chilling solemnities of a day prefix'd—the dreadful cruel pomp of an ignominious tormenting execution. 1825 Sandusky (Ohio) Clarion 10 Dec. 2 Of the horrible and blood-chilling spectacle which it exhibited, we are permitted only to say that on her body and neck were found eleven wounds. 1885 Overland Monthly July 99/2 Vampires, were-wolves, all the blood-chilling horrors..might be about. 1933 S. Walker Night Club Era 320 An evening with Frank E. Campbell, the undertaker, at Jansen's old place, and his straight-faced, blood-chilling jocosity. 2004 Q Sept. 144/3 Despite the blood-chilling news that her set includes a cover of John Lennon's Imagine,..[the] tour has long since sold out. |
▸ Also with capital initial.
slang (
orig. and chiefly in African-American usage). A black person; (
occas.) (with
the) black people collectively. Also (chiefly as a form of address): a close (male) friend;
cf. brother n. Additions.
| 1965 F. Bonham Durango St. 105 Why should we do that for a bunch of nig–... Esscuse me, brothers. I meant bloods. 1967 ‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp (1998) vi. 105 Blood, you sure know what to say... I love you, Blood. We gonna be tight. 1979 D. Thoreau City at Bay vi. 48 They can kill as many honkies as they want but if they try to mess with the blood they gonna be sorry. 1997 ‘Q’ Deadmeat 46 Sounds like there's a lot of politics going on, blood. 2001 Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 18–24 May 26/2 We bloods..were watching the antics of our witchdoctor cousins with embarrassed concentration. 2004 E. Conlon Blue Blood x. 401, I swear, Officer, I did not touch another woman, I was sniffin' coke with my bloods all night! |
▸
blood–brain barrier n.after French
barrière hémato-encéphalique (1927 or earlier) or German
Bluthirnschranke (1932 or earlier)
Physiol. a barrier preventing the passage of ions and large molecules from the blood into brain tissue, formed by the specialized endothelium of cerebral capillaries.
| 1934 U. Friedemann & A. Elkeles in Lancet 7 Apr. 719/1 Within the last few years..investigators have become aware of the existence of a selective mechanism regulating the exchange of substances between blood and brain. This mechanism has been described as ‘barrière hémato-encéphalique’ or ‘Bluthirnschranke’. We propose to use the English equivalent and therefore shall speak of the *blood-brain barrier or B.B.B. 1941 Acta Physiol. Scand. 2 91 This function of permeability is characterised by a barrier effect—the so-called blood-brain-barrier—an obstacle to the passage of certain crystalloids from the blood into the CNS. 2000 Daily Tel. 23 May 22/2 Second-generation antihistamines..do not readily cross the blood-brain barrier and have much less sedative action. |
▪ II. blood, v. (
blʌd)
[f. prec.] 1. a. trans. To cause blood to flow from;
esp. in
Surg., to ‘let blood’, to
bleed (which is more common).
| 1633 P. Fletcher Purple Isl. vii. lxx, His horse he bloods, & pricks a trembling vein. 1746 W. Thompson R.N. Advoc. (1757) 41 They [slaughtered oxen] are neither sufficiently blooded, nor dressed in any tolerable manner. 1780 Johnson Lett. II. ccxliv. 158 Yesterday I fasted and was blooded, and to day took physick and dined. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge lxxxii, Being promptly blooded..he rallied. 1857 Livingstone Trav. xii. 223 They had scruples about eating an animal not blooded in their own way. |
† b. transf. To let sap flow from (trees).
Obs.| 1623 Althorp MS. in Simpkinson Washingtons Pref. 50 Nov. 22 To Dunkley for..one daie blouding trees {pstlg}00 01s. |
2. To wet or smear with blood. ?
Obs. or
dial.| c 1593 Spenser Sonn. xx, Let none ever say, That ye were blooded in a yeelded pray. 1691 Shadwell Scowrers iv. i. 359 She has scratched and blooded me all over. a 1700 Dryden Fables (J.) Reach out their spears afar, And blood their points. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones vii. xii, Having blooded his waistcoat. 1862 Borrow Wild Wales II. 31 One of the hardest battles which ever blooded English soil. |
3. Venery.
a. To give a hound its first taste, or sight and smell of the blood of the game it is to hunt. Also
fig.| 1781 P. Beckford Hunting (1802) 97 Here they are blooded to fox. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 513 It was most important..that his troops should be blooded. |
b. To smear the face of (a novice at hunting) with the blood of a fox, etc., after the kill. Also
transf. and
fig.| 1908 L. C. R. Cameron Otters & Otter-Hunting xvi. 198 Blooding,..marking a boy or girl on the brow and cheeks with a small piece of Otter's flesh to ‘enter’ him or her to the sport. 1922 M. Arlen ‘Piracy’ i. iv. §4. 55 He rolled and wallowed in it, he let life ‘blood’ him. 1926 J. Fairfax-Blakeborough Hunting & Sporting Reminisc. H. W. S. Lowndes ii. 8 Harry Lowndes was blooded to hounds at the early age of four and a half..by Tom Whitmore, the celebrated Oakley huntsman. 1927 W. E. Collinson Contemp. Eng. 37 A year or so ago..I met the word blooding in an illustrated weekly, depicting the ceremony of smearing with the fox's blood a girl taking part in her first hunt. 1929 J. Masefield Hawbucks 93 Carrie had had the brush and been blooded. 1955 Times 24 May 15/5 These largely mining areas are of little use to Conservatism save as battle courses for blooding new candidates. 1959 20th Cent. Dec. 484 Lee is, of course, blooded—‘he criss-crossed her cheek thoroughly’. Blooding is an invariable feature of pony books. |
† 4. To raise the blood of,
i.e. to make eager for combat or bloodshed, to exasperate;
esp. soldiers at the beginning of a fight.
Obs.| 1622 Bacon Hen. VII (J.) The auxiliary forces of French and English were much blooded one against another. 1677 Govt. Venice 61 The consideration of a Sequin..for every Turks head they bring in has..blooded them against those Infidels. |
5. To apply a coat of blood to (leather) in leather-colouring, in order to obtain a good black.
| 190. Mod. Amer. Tanning 110 (Cent. Dict. Suppl.). |
6. intr. with
it: to play the ‘blood’ (see
blood n. 15 c).
| 1922 Joad Highbrows v. 179 When I wasn't ‘blooding’ it with the second-year men..your scout..used to bring your lunch down into my rooms. |