1. 1水蛭;(比喻)吸取他人資源的人

    A leech is a small worm-like creature, usually living in water, that attaches to skin and sucks blood. People also use "leech" for a person who takes advantage of others, especially by taking their money or help without giving anything back — like a friend who always borrows money and never pays it back, called "a leech."

From the word’s history

From Old English lǣċe 'blood-sucking worm'; figuratively a parasite person.

古英文 lǣċe 指吸血蟲,後比喻吸別人好處的人。

Wiktionary

原始詞典資料11 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法,摘錄並精簡格式,我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的;有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

Leechname

  • 1

    A surname originating as an occupation, derived from the profession leech, a former word for a physician.

leechnoun詞源 1/ˈliːt͡ʃ/

  • 1

    A typically aquatic blood-sucking annelid of the subclass Hirudinea, especially Hirudo medicinalis.

    • The leech on his leg had swelled to more than five inches long, puffed and swollen on his blood.
  • 2

    A person who derives advantage from others in a parasitic fashion.

    • 'Wrecked his body and his mind, no use to hisself or his family or nobody, just a leech on society'.
    • At this point, I felt this man was a leech. I suspected that he had spent a lifetime living off the good will of women that he met.
  • 3

    datedmedicinesciencesA glass tube designed for drawing blood from damaged tissue by means of a vacuum.

leechverb詞源 1/ˈliːt͡ʃ/

  • 1

    To apply a leech medicinally, so that it sucks blood from the patient.

    • This had to be leeched, and lanced, and doctored with ointments and poultices for several weeks, till I was almost driven to despair, - for the weather was at length fine, and I was tantalized by seeing grand butterflies flying past my door, and thinking of the twenty or thirty new species of insects that I ought to be getting every day.
    • The poppy made him sleep and while he slept they leeched him to drain off the bad blood.
  • 2

    To drain (resources) without giving back.

    • Near-synonyms: mooch, suck down
    • Bert leeched hundreds of files from the BBS, but never uploaded anything in return.

leechnoun詞源 2/ˈliːt͡ʃ/

  • 1

    archaicA physician.

    • Many skillful leeches him abide to salve his hurts.
    • The word Physitian we do vulgarly abuse (as we doe very many other(s)) for a Leech , or Medicus.
  • 2

    lifestylepaganismreligionA healer.

    • Their functions are threefold, those of the medicine-man (the leech, or healer by supernatural means); of the soothsayer (the prophet through communion with the invisible world); and of the priest, especially in his capacity as exorcist
    • In ancient times runesters were a specialized class separate from that of the witch or ordinary spell caster (much as the other specialists such as the leech or healer and the seithkona were different from a witch), and even today many believe it takes years of training to become adept at using the runes in spell work.

leechverb詞源 3/ˈliːt͡ʃ/

  • 1

    archaicrareTo treat, cure or heal.

    • 1564, Accounts of Louth Corporalː Paid for leeching.. my horses very sick.
    • 1566–74, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotlandː To one man (that) broke his leg in Strivelin … Item to the man that leecheth him.

leechnoun詞源 4/ˈliːt͡ʃ/

  • 1

    nauticaltransportThe vertical edge of a square sail.

    • To help combat these problems, almost all sailmakers trim the leeches of their headsails to a hollow or concave profile and enclose a LEECHLINE within the leech tabling.
  • 2

    nauticaltransportThe aft edge of a triangular sail.

    • Trim the leech of the jib parallel to the main by watching the slot between the mainsail and the jib.

摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary,已精簡格式;依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用,改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。