I. ˈblēd verb
( bled ˈbled ; bleed·ing )
Etymology: Middle English bleden, from Old English blēdan, from blōd blood
Date: before 12th century
intransitive verb
1.
a. : to emit or lose blood
b. : to sacrifice one's blood especially in battle
2. : to feel anguish, pain, or sympathy
a heart that bleed s at a friend's misfortune
3.
a. : to escape by oozing or flowing (as from a wound)
b. : to spread into or through something gradually : seep
foreign policy bleed s into economic policy — J. B. Judis
4. : to give up some constituent (as sap or dye) by exuding or diffusing it
5.
a. : to pay out or give money
b. : to have money extorted
6. : to be printed so as to run off one or more edges of the page after trimming
transitive verb
1. : to remove or draw blood from
2. : to get or extort money from especially over a prolonged period
3. : to draw sap from (a tree)
4.
a. : to extract or let out some or all of a contained substance from
bleed a brake line
b. : to extract or cause to escape from a container
c. : to diminish gradually — usually used with off
a pilot bleed ing off airspeed
d. : to lose rapidly and uncontrollably
the company was bleed ing money
e. : sap
cost overruns… bleed other programs — Alex Roland
5. : to cause (as a printed illustration) to bleed
•
- bleed white
II. noun
Date: circa 1937
1. : printed matter (as an illustration) that bleeds ; also : the part of a bleed trimmed off
2. : the escape of blood from vessels : hemorrhage