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 ge leich 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