bloodsucking

English

Etymology

From blood +‎ sucking.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

bloodsucking (not comparable)

1. (of an insect or animal) That draws off the blood of another animal, or a person.
   • 2010 August 7, May Berenbaum, “This Bedbug’s Life”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Bedbugs win neither praise for their sophisticated technique, nor very much respect for the fact that they don’t carry diseases, as most bloodsucking human ectoparasites do.

2. (by extension, of a person) parasitic, leechlike or freeloading

Derived terms

• nonbloodsucking

 

Related terms

• bloodsucker

Translations

that draws off blood

• Danish: blodsugende
• Hungarian: vérszívó (hu)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: blodsugende

• Swedish: blodsugande (sv)

Noun

bloodsucking (countable and uncountable, plural bloodsuckings)

1. Parasitic, leechlike behavior.
   • 1940, Basil Mathews, “Worldwide reaction to events in India”, in The Asiatic Review, volume 36, page 255:

     Economic blood-sucking of the Indian peoples, who are forced to pay immense sums of money to sustain rich Indian Civil Servants