A hemorrhage is a heavy loss of blood — bleeding that is serious, not a small cut. Doctors use it for bleeding inside the body as well as outside: a brain hemorrhage is bleeding in the brain. As a verb, to hemorrhage means to bleed heavily: he hemorrhaged after the operation. People also stretch it: a company can hemorrhage money, and a team can hemorrhage players — meaning something valuable is pouring out and not stopping. This is the American spelling. British English writes haemorrhage, with ae at the front, and still with two r’s in the middle. Though actually, in careful medical talk the word stays quite formal; everyday English often just says heavy bleeding. The pieces come from Greek via Latin: haima, blood, plus a part related to break or burst — blood bursting out.