bleed

USBLEED/ˈbliːd/

Noun pluralbleeds

20 meanings of bleed

1
verbintransitive
To lose blood through a damaged or broken blood vessel.
Deep cuts bleed more heavily than shallow scrapes.
The boxer was bleeding from a gash above his eye.
Note
The root of every other meaning here: Old English blēdan, built on the Germanic word for blood, so to bleed was first simply to give up blood. A person, animal or body part is the subject, and no object follows: a nose bleeds, a cut bleeds. When someone else draws the blood, the verb turns transitive and becomes the old medical practice.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
Bleed descends from Old English blēdan, ultimately formed from the Germanic word for blood. en.wiktionary.org
The original senses concerned emitting or losing blood, underlying the later figurative meanings. etymonline.com
2
verbtransitive
To draw or let blood from a person or animal, especially as a medical treatment.
Physicians once bled patients for almost any ailment.
They bleed the horse only under a veterinarian's supervision.
Note
Older medicine paired it with purging, and the two verbs often travel together. In Octavia E. Butler's Kindred (1979), a doctor "bled them and purged them," and the children died anyway. The patient is the object and the healer is the subject. A patient who bleeds is losing blood. A patient who is bled has had it drawn on purpose.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
Historical medicine paired bloodletting with purging. jlgh.org
Octavia E. Butler wrote Kindred, first published in 1979. search.worldcat.org
Kindred contains the exact words 'bled them and purged them'; Alice tells Dana that a doctor treated her children this way and they nevertheless died. mtp2023.net
3
verbtransitive
To steadily lose something vital, such as resources, strength, or support, over time.
Years of underfunding bled the agency of its most experienced staff.
Prolonged conflict can bleed a region of both people and capital.
Similardrain, deplete, strip, sap
4
verbtransitive
To take large amounts of money from someone, typically through excessive or relentless charges.
Hidden fees bled the new homeowners long after they moved in.
Subscription traps can bleed unwary users month after month.
Similarfleece, milk, drain, squeeze
5
verbintransitive
Of ink, dye, or color, to spread beyond its intended area and stain the surrounding cloth or paper.
The watercolor bled into the damp margins before it could dry.
Dark fabrics sometimes bleed onto lighter ones in a hot wash.
Similarrun, spread, seep
6
verbintransitive
Of a business, to steadily lose money over a sustained period.
The airline bled through the recession as bookings collapsed.
Firms that bleed quarter after quarter rarely survive.
Note
Finance's intransitive use: a business or sector is the subject, and nothing follows, as in most of the sectors are bleeding. That separates it from draining someone of money, where one party is bled by another. Progressive forms such as is bleeding and kept bleeding suit it, because the loss is ongoing.
7
verbtransitive
To remove trapped air from a pipe or system carrying liquid, so the fluid flows freely.
He bled each radiator in turn until the knocking stopped.
Always bleed the brake lines after replacing the fluid.
Similarpurge, vent
8
nouncountable or uncountable
An episode of bleeding, especially the internal kind that people with hemophilia experience.
A severe bleed into the joint can cause lasting damage if untreated.
Each bleed was logged so the care team could track his condition.
Similarhemorrhage
9
verbfigurativelyintransitive
To display intense loyalty to a group by claiming its colors run in one's own blood.
Generations of this family have bled scarlet for the regiment.
True supporters bleed club colors even after relegation.
Note
A boast of allegiance built like a linking verb. The color word follows bleed the way an adjective follows be, so a devoted Vikings fan bleeds purple. The color is the group's own, and the line works only when the listener knows which team or school wears it.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
Purple is associated with the Minnesota Vikings, whose supporters express allegiance by saying they bleed that color. vikings.com
10
verbintransitive
To flow out or fall in drops, the way blood does from a cut.
Clear juices bleed from a ripe tomato the moment the knife breaks its skin.
Thick resin bled from the gash in the pine and hardened into amber-colored beads.
Similarooze, seep, drip, trickle
Note
Here the subject is the liquid itself, not the thing that loses it. Pope writes in Windsor-Forest (1713), "For me the balm shall bleed," so the resin is what bleeds. Compare the plant losing sap, where the tree is the subject. Making the flowing substance the subject gives the line an elevated, poetic ring.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
Alexander Pope wrote Windsor-Forest, first published in 1713. rpo.library.utoronto.ca
The poem contains 'For me the balm shall bleed'; these words occur in Father Thames's speech at line 381. rpo.library.utoronto.ca
Balm here denotes the substance secreted by a tree, making the flowing substance the grammatical subject. rpo.library.utoronto.ca

11
verbtransitive or intransitive
To lose sap, gum, or juice, as a plant does through a cut or wound in its bark.
Rubber trees bleed a milky latex when their trunks are scored.
The grapevine bled clear juice where the gardener had pruned it back.
Similarooze, exude, weep, leak
12
nouncountable or uncountable
A narrow margin of printing extending beyond the trim line, intended to be cut off so images run cleanly to the edge of the finished sheet.
The print shop warned that the cover lacked sufficient bleed for a full-page image.
She set the bleed to three millimeters before exporting the file for press.
Note
Printers add it so that an imperfect cut does no harm. Artwork is carried past the trim line, so slight misalignment never leaves a sliver of white paper where a picture should meet the edge. The noun is often uncountable, as in enough bleed or no bleed, though a bleed on each side is also natural. It pairs with the verb for edge-to-edge printing: an image that bleeds needs bleed.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
Artwork extends beyond the trim line to prevent slight cutting misalignment from leaving an unwanted white edge. helpx.adobe.com
13
verbtransitive or intransitive
To extend a printed image or color all the way to the edge of the page, leaving no margin.
The art director asked the designer to bleed the cover image past the trim line.
The background tint bled across the entire spread, leaving no white border at all.
Note
Designers use it both with and without an object: an image bleeds off the page, or someone bleeds it. The passive appears as bled to the margin. The Macmillan Dictionary of Marketing and Advertising (1998) names full-page color magazine ads as the typical case. Running past the trim needs extra printed area, and that area is the noun bleed.
14
nouncountable or uncountable
Sound captured by a microphone from a source other than the one it was meant to record.
The engineer reduced bleed by placing baffles between the instruments in the live room.
Vocal mics in a crowded room always pick up some bleed from the rest of the band.
Similarspill, leakage
Note
Recording engineers usually treat it as an uncountable nuisance: a vocal mic picks up bleed from the drums, and the job is to reduce it. The image matches ink spreading past its lines. Sound meant for one microphone escapes and colors another track.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
A vocal microphone can pick up bleed from drums, which engineers seek to reduce. sweetwater.com
Sound intended for one microphone can enter another microphone and affect its recorded track. prosoundweb.com
15
nouncountable or uncountable
The removal of trapped air bubbles from a pipe or line that carries another fluid.
A proper bleed of the brake system restored a firm pedal feel.
The heating engineer scheduled a bleed of every radiator before the winter.
Similarpurge
16
noununcountable
The carrying over of a character's in-game emotions into the player's own feelings or behavior outside the game.
Bleed lingered for days after the character she loved was killed off in the campaign.
The game master built a debrief into the session to help players manage bleed.
Note
Role-players borrowed it for feeling that crosses from character to player. It is uncountable: players talk about managing bleed, never a bleed. The image is the same as dye spreading past its edge. What was meant to stay inside the fiction seeps into the player's own life once the game is over.
17
verbtransitive
To tap off high-pressure gas, usually air, from a system whose main purpose is producing that gas for something else.
The turbine bleeds compressed air to pressurize the cabin in flight.
Operators bleed gas from the main line to feed the auxiliary units.
Similartap, draw, divert
Note
Engineers use it for air drawn off a machine that compresses air for some other job. In a jet engine, valves bleed air from the later compressor stages at low speeds to prevent surging. Air bled from an auxiliary power unit can spin up the engines or pressurize the cabin. The participle often follows its noun directly, as in air bled from the APU. The equipment that does this is the bleed-air system.
18
nouncountable or uncountable
On aircraft, a system that draws hot, high-pressure air from a gas turbine engine for uses such as pressurizing the cabin and keeping ice off the airframe.
The bleed routes engine air to the air-conditioning packs throughout the flight.
Mechanics inspected the bleed after the crew reported a pressurization fault.
Note
Aviation usually puts it in the plural: crews speak of the bleeds, switched on or off together. They cost engine power, so on takeoff at high altitude or near maximum weight the bleeds may be turned off for a while. The verb behind the hardware is tapping off compressed air.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
Engine bleeds can be switched off together. uniforce-sog.org
Extracting bleed air reduces available engine power or thrust. cs.odu.edu
Engine bleed may be turned off for takeoff when high airport altitude or high aircraft weight makes additional thrust necessary. cs.odu.edu
The corresponding verb means tapping off compressed air. en.wiktionary.org
19
verbtransitive
Of one phonological rule, to remove the context in which another rule would otherwise have applied, preventing it from taking effect.
Two rules can bleed each other, each removing the context the other requires.
When vowel deletion bleeds palatalization, the expected soft consonant never surfaces.
Oppositefeed
Note
A term of art for how rules interact, and its subject is always a rule. Labialization bleeds palatalization when it removes the conditions palatalization needs. Its opposite is feed, said of a rule that creates the environment another rule requires. Together, bleed and feed give phonologists a compact way to describe what one rule does to another's chances.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
In this phonological sense, a rule bleeds another rule by removing conditions necessary for its application. ocw.mit.edu
Labialization bleeds palatalization when it removes the conditions required for palatalization. en.wiktionary.org
Feeding is the opposite interaction: a rule creates the environment required for another rule to apply. ocw.mit.edu
20
verbobsoletetransitive
To smear or cover something with blood; to make bloody.
Note
An obsolete use in which the blood lands on something rather than leaving someone: to bleed a cloth was to stain it red. Avoid it in modern writing. Readers now take a direct object as the person or animal losing blood, as in the medical sense. Say bloodied or stained with blood instead.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of bleed apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

From Middle English bleden, from Old English blēdan ("to bleed"), going back through Proto-West Germanic and Proto-Germanic to a root meaning "blood." It is related to Dutch bloeden, German bluten, and Swedish blöda, all meaning "to bleed."