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exsanguinate

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 26 May 2024
Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi) about to exsanguinate (sense 1.1) Lucy Weston (Frances Dade) in the 1931 film Dracula.

Etymology

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PIE word
*h₁ésh₂r̥

Learned borrowing from New Latin exsanguinātus (“depleted of blood, exsanguinated; lacking blood, bloodless”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix). Exsanguinātus is a participial adjective formed on ex- (“out, from”) +‎ sanguī̆s (sanguin-) (“blood”) +‎ -ātus.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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exsanguinate (third-person singular simple present exsanguinates, present participle exsanguinating, simple past and past participle exsanguinated)

  1. (transitive)
    2. To drain (a living or dead body, or (medicine, surgery) a body part) of blood.
      Synonym: bleed white
      • 1873, John A. Lidell, “On the So-called Congestive and Serous Forms of Apoplexy—Their Clinical History and Post-mortem Lesions”, in A Treatise on Apoplexy, Cerebral Hemorrhage, Cerebral Embolism, Cerebral Gout, Cerebral Rheumatism, and Epidemic Cerebro-spinal Meningitis, New York, N.Y.: W[illia]m Wood & Co., […], →OCLC, page 96:
        The substance of the brain was not congested but, on the contrary, exsanguinated.
      • 1883, John A. Lidell, “Injuries of Bloodvessels”, in John Ashhurst, editor, The International Encyclopædia of Surgery: A Systematic Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Surgery by Authors of Various Nations […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: William Wood & Company, →OCLC, page 49:
        At the battle of Ball's Bluff, I saw a soldier having a shot flesh-wound of the left arm, who was much weakened and exsanguinated from a venous hemorrhage that was caused by applying an improvised tourniquet above the wound (it was done by a comrade), and was readily stopped on removing the cause.
      • 1886 November 13, “The Painless Production of Local Anæsthesia”, in Thomas A[lmond] Ashby, editor, Maryland Medical Journal: A Weekly Journal of Medicine and Surgery, Baltimore, Md.: Journal Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 46, column 2:
        Dr. [J. Leonard] Corning first exsanguinates the part to be anæsthetized with an Esmarch bandage. He next applies a tourniquet above the bandage and the latter is removed.
      • 1895, William Rose, “General Surgery”, in The Year-book of Treatment for 1895: A Critical Review for Practitioners of Medicine and Surgery, volume XVI, number 3 (number 295 overall), London: Cassell and Company, […], →OCLC, page 237:
        A careful dissection, however, after exsanguinating the limb, suffices to prevent serious mischief, and even in the cases where the attending vein has been injured, necessitating its ligature or extirpation (eleven cases), no gangrene followed.
      • 1965, William P[arry] Murphy, Jr., “Session III: Bath Fluid and Fluid Circulation”, in N. Thomas Connally, Jr., editor, Proceedings of the Conference on Hemodialysis: November 9–10, 1964: National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland (Public Health Service Publication; no. 1349), Bethesda, Md.: National Institutes of Health, →OCLC, page 148:
        [O]ne of the inherent problems in the old rotating drum-type kidney was that you could rather easily exsanguinate the patient into the[sic – meaning a?] sausage casing in a matter of a few minutes unless you were Johnny on the spot, watching until the blood got back into the patient. I think an inherent design advantage would be one in which the machine could not contain an excess of blood and you couldn't physically exsanguinate the patient.
      • 2006, Graham Masterton, “Black Trap”, in Descendant, Sutton, London: Severn House Publishers, →ISBN:
        [']Each incident has been very different. In one case we had a family of five killed in a caravan at Warlingham, and four out of five of them were exsanguinated. But in another case, in Streatham, seven were killed at a Boy Scout get-together but only two were exsanguinated.' / 'Those victims who weren't exsanguinated,' I asked her. 'Did they have anything in common?[']
    3. To kill (a person or animal) by means of blood loss.
      Synonym: bleed out
      • 1997, Phil Farrand, “First Season [Eve]”, in The Nitpicker’s Guide for X-philes, New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing, →ISBN:
        And I do have to admit that once the episode revealed that the girls killed their dads because of a chromosomal predisposition, I made a note to have my daughter tested for that "exsanguinate your father" gene!
  2. (intransitive)
    1. To bleed profusely; also, to die by means of blood loss.
      Synonym: bleed out
      • 1989 December 19, Ellen Redick, “Testimony of the American Association of Critical-care Nurses on Blood-borne Pathogens before the Occupational Safety and Health Administration”, in Oversight Hearings on OSHA’s Proposed Standard to Protect Health Care Workers against Blood-borne Pathogens including the AIDS and Hepatitis B Viruses: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Health and Safety of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, One Hundred First Congress, Second Session […] (Serial No. 101-84), volume 2, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published 1990, →OCLC, page 990:
        Universal precautions may not always be instituted in emergencies, as the nurse may find herself with no time to put on a pair of gloves or put on a gown and mask. A few examples of emergency cases are: patients that start to exsanguinate, vomiting blood in a projectile manner all over the room, […]
      • 1994, Harry Lee Kraus, Jr., chapter 12, in Stainless Steel Hearts, Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, →ISBN, page 165:
        He won't tolerate not doing a resection. Now let's get this stomach out and get out of here before he exsanguinates on the table!
    2. To cause blood to drain from a body or body part, or profuse bleeding.
      • 1886, George J[ulius] Engelmann, “The Use of Electricity in Gynecological Practice”, in Transactions of the American Gynecological Society, volume 11, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, […], published 1887, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 234:
        A mild galvanic current stimulates functional activity, promotes absorption; a stronger current contracts and exsanguinates.
      • 1971, W. H. Kingham, “Techniques for Handling Animals”, in J. R. Norris, D. W. Ribbons, editors, Methods in Microbiology, volume 5A, London; Orlando, Fla.: Academic Press, →ISBN, page 294:
        If sterile blood [from a rat] is required an alternative method is to exsanguinate under terminal anaesthesia by withdrawing blood from the heart with a sterile syringe and needle.
      • 1976, Norton J. Greenberger, Daniel H. Winship, “Colon”, in Gastrointestinal Disorders: A Pathophysiologic Approach, Chicago, Ill.: Year Book Medical Publishers, →ISBN, page 193, column 2:
        Ulcerative colitis is highly variable in its clinical manifestations. […] [B]leeding may be profuse, virtually exsanguinating and continuous, responding only to total colectomy, and the diarrhea may be voluminous, watery and lead rapidly to volume depletion and shock.

Derived terms

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Translations

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to drain (a living or dead body, or a body part) of blood
to cause blood to drain from a body or body part, or profuse bleeding

Further reading

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