Found 2 items, similar to leach.
English → English (WordNet)
Definition: leach
leach
n : the process of leaching [syn:
leaching]
v 1: cause (a liquid) to leach or percolate
2: permeate or penetrate gradually;
“the fertilizer leached
into the ground” [syn:
percolate]
3: remove substances from by a percolating liquid;
“leach the
soil” [syn:
strip]
English → English (gcide)
Definition: leach
Leech
\Leech\, n. [Cf. LG. leik, Icel. l[=i]k, Sw. lik boltrope,
st[*a]ende liken the leeches.] (Naut.)
The border or edge at the side of a sail. [Written also
leach.]
[1913 Webster]
Leech line, a line attached to the leech ropes of sails,
passing up through blocks on the yards, to haul the
leeches by. --Totten.
Leech rope, that part of the boltrope to which the side of
a sail is sewed.
[1913 Webster]
Leech
\Leech\, n. [OE. leche, l[ae]che, physician, AS. l[=ae]ce;
akin to Fries. l[=e]tza, OHG. l[=a]hh[=i], Icel. l[ae]knari,
Sw. l["a]kare, Dan. l[ae]ge, Goth. l[=e]keis, AS. l[=a]cnian
to heal, Sw. l["a]ka, Dan. l[ae]ge, Icel. l[ae]kna, Goth.
l[=e]kin[=o]n.]
1. A physician or surgeon; a professor of the art of healing.
[Written also
leach.] [Archaic] --Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
Leech, heal thyself. --Wyclif (Luke
iv. 23).
2. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous genera and species of
annulose worms, belonging to the order
Hirudinea, or
Bdelloidea, esp. those species used in medicine, as
Hirudo medicinalis of Europe, and allied species.
[1913 Webster]
Note: In the mouth of bloodsucking leeches are three
convergent, serrated jaws, moved by strong muscles. By
the motion of these jaws a stellate incision is made in
the skin, through which the leech sucks blood till it
is gorged, and then drops off. The stomach has large
pouches on each side to hold the blood. The common
large bloodsucking leech of America (
Macrobdella decora
) is dark olive above, and red below, with black
spots. Many kinds of leeches are parasitic on fishes;
others feed upon worms and mollusks, and have no jaws
for drawing blood. See
Bdelloidea.
Hirudinea, and
Clepsine.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Surg.) A glass tube of peculiar construction, adapted for
drawing blood from a scarified part by means of a vacuum.
[1913 Webster]
Horse leech, a less powerful European leech (
H[ae]mopis vorax
), commonly attacking the membrane that lines the
inside of the mouth and nostrils of animals that drink at
pools where it lives.
[1913 Webster]