bleed /bliːd/ BrE AmE verb ( past tense and past participle bled /bled/)
[ Word Family: noun : ↑ blood , ↑ bleeding ; adjective : ↑ bloodless , bloody; verb : ↑ bleed ]
[ Language: Old English ; Origin: bledan , from blod ; ⇨ ↑ blood ]
1 . BLOOD
a) [intransitive] to lose blood, especially because of an injury:
Your nose is bleeding.
Tragically, she bled to death.
bleed profusely/heavily (=bleed a lot)
Mrs Burke was found unconscious and bleeding profusely.
b) [transitive] to take some blood from someone’s body, done in the past in order to treat a disease:
When he fell sick several days later, he had a doctor bleed him.
2 . MONEY [transitive] to force someone to pay an unreasonable amount of money over a period of time:
His ex-wife clearly intends to bleed him for every last penny.
bleed somebody dry/white (=take all their money, possessions etc)
The ten-year war has bled the country dry.
3 . AIR/LIQUID [transitive] to remove air or liquid from a system in order to make it work properly, for example from a heating system:
We need to bleed the radiators.
4 . COLOUR [intransitive] to spread from one area of cloth or paper to another SYN run :
Wash it in cold water so the colours don’t bleed.
5 . bleed red ink informal if a company or business bleeds red ink, it loses a lot of money, rather than making money:
Analysts predict the retailer will continue to bleed red ink, with losses topping $180 million.
⇨ my heart bleeds (for somebody) at ↑ heart (38)