- any bloodsucking or carnivorous aquatic or terrestrial worm of the class Hirudinea, certain freshwater species of which were formerly much used in medicine for bloodletting.
- a person who clings to another for personal gain, especially without giving anything in return, and usually with the implication or effect of exhausting the other's resources; parasite.
- an instrument used for drawing blood.
- to apply leeches to, so as to bleed.
- to cling to and feed upon or drain, as a leech: His relatives leeched him until his entire fortune was exhausted.
- to cure; heal.
- to hang on to a person in the manner of a leech: She leeched on to him for dear life.
- a physician.
- either of the lateral edges of a square sail.
- the after edge of a fore-and-aft sail.
- U.S. historian, novelist, and biographer.
- any annelid worm of the class Hirudinea, which have a sucker at each end of the body and feed on the blood or tissues of other animals
- a person who clings to or preys on another person
- an archaic word for physician
- (in combination)
- to cling or adhere persistently to something
- to use leeches to suck the blood of (a person), as a method of medical treatment
- the after edge of a fore-and-aft sail or either of the vertical edges of a squaresail
