| 释义 |
leech
I. \ˈlēch\ noun
(-es)
Etymology: Middle English leche, from Old English lǣce; akin to Old High German lāhhi physician, Old Norse læknir, Gothic lekeis physician, and perhaps to Greek legein to gather, choose, speak — more at legend
1.
a. archaic : physician, surgeon
< make each prescribe to other as each other's leech — Shakespeare >
< presents herself as a leech able to cure the disease — Mary D. Anderson >
b. now dialect Britain : veterinarian
2. [so called from its former use by physicians for bleeding patients]
a. : any of numerous carnivorous or bloodsucking annelid worms constituting the class Hirudinea, having typically a flattened segmented body of lanceolate outline that is broader near the posterior end and has externally well-marked annulations which are far more numerous than the true segments, a sucker at each end of the body, a mouth within the anterior sucker, and a large stomach with capacious pouches at the sides, being hermaphroditic usually with direct development, and occurring chiefly in fresh water although a few are marine and some tropical forms are terrestrial — see gnathobdellida, pharyngobdellida, rhynchobdellida
b. : an insect larva superficially resembling a leech
3. : a hanger-on who seeks advantage or gain : parasite
< the shark is there and the shark's prey; the spendthrift and the leech that sucks him — William Cowper >
< leeches … hateful parasites feeding upon the blood of artists — Robertson Davies >
Synonyms: see parasite
II. verb
(-ed/-ing/-es)
Etymology: Middle English lechen, from leche, n.
transitive verb
1.
a. : to treat as a physician : cure, heal
< cobra poison none may leech — Rudyard Kipling >
b. : to bleed by the use of leeches
2. : to fasten onto as a leech : feed on the blood or substance of : drain, exhaust
< bankers who had always leeched them white — D.A.Munro >
intransitive verb
: to attach oneself in or as if in the manner of a leech
< she would leech on to him and drain the life out of him — W.L.Gresham >
III. noun
or leach \“\
(-es)
Etymology: Middle English lek, leche, lyche, from Middle Low German līk rope to which the sail is fastened; akin to Middle High German geleich joint, limb — more at ligature
1. : either vertical edge of a square sail — see sail illustration
2. : the after edge of a fore-and-aft sail |