bleeding

Pluralbleedings (some meanings)

1. 1
   adjective

   Losing blood, especially from a wound, injury, or damaged blood vessel.

   Paramedics stabilized the bleeding passenger before moving him from the wreck.

   The surgeon clamped the bleeding artery to control the loss of blood.

   Note

   Here the word is literal and ungradable: a wound is bleeding or it is not, so the adjective takes no more or most. It sits naturally beside other words of injury, as in Benedict le Vay's "burnt and bleeding man" in RAIL (2022). Before a word for a person it can collide with the British slang intensifier: a bleeding man is hurt, while a bleeding idiot is merely annoying.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The escape of blood from a blood vessel that has been injured or damaged.

   Internal bleeding can be difficult to detect without imaging.

   A tourniquet was applied to control heavy bleeding in the leg.

   Similarhemorrhage

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of bleed.

   The injured climber kept bleeding despite the bandage tied around his arm.

   Doctors worked quickly to control the bleeding before it became dangerous.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every use of bleed, not only the medical ones. A wound is bleeding, dye is bleeding into the paper, a plumber is bleeding air from a pipe, and a bad investment is bleeding its backers of money. After be it builds the progressive (was bleeding). Used as a noun it names the loss of blood itself, as in internal bleeding.

4. 4
   adjectiveslangemphaticintensifierUK

   Used attributively as a mild British expletive expressing anger, annoyance, or emphasis; comparable to 'damned' or 'blasted'.

   He left the bleeding gate open and the sheep wandered off again.

   I've waited two bleeding hours for a bus that never came.

   Similarbloody, flipping, blooming, ruddy, damned

   Note

   British slang belonging to the same family as bloody and blasted, an all-purpose oath of annoyance. It usually lands on a term of abuse: a bleeding liar, a bleeding idiot. It suits casual talk among people who would not blink at bloody. In formal writing, or with listeners you do not know, leave it out.

5. 5
   adverbslangBritish

   Used as an intensifier meaning extremely or very, chiefly in British informal speech.

   You were bleeding lucky to get a refund after all that.

   The queue moved bleeding slowly in the midday heat.

   Similarbloody, flipping, damned

   Note

   The same oath works as an adverb, attaching to adjectives rather than nouns: too bleeding cheap, the bleeding obvious. Christian Wolmar's "state the bleeding obvious," in his 2021 piece "Electrification is a given... but comfort matters as well," shows it turning up even in commentary on railways. Its register is that of the slang adjective, so the same caution applies.

6. 6
   nouncolloquialeuphemisticuncountable

   A colloquial term for menstruation, the monthly discharge of blood from the lining of the uterus.

   Her bleeding had been irregular for months, so she booked a checkup.

   Many athletes track their bleeding to plan their training schedules.

   Similarperiod, menstruation, monthlies, curse

   Note

   A euphemism that names a period by its most visible sign rather than by the clinical word. It belongs to colloquial speech. Phrases such as heavy or irregular bleeding overlap with the general medical sense, so context decides whether a period is meant.

7. 7
   nounfigurativelyusually singular

   A gradual depletion of a resource such as money, strength, or support; a draining or sapping away.

   Like a slow leak that empties a reservoir long before anyone notices the level dropping.

   Investors grew alarmed at the steady bleeding of cash from the failing venture.

   The scandal triggered a slow bleeding of public trust in the agency.

   Similardrain, loss, outflow, erosion, depletion

   Note

   Money is the usual casualty: the bleeding of the budget, the bleeding of the treasury. The construction is bleeding of followed by whatever is draining away. The image keeps the feel of a slow wound, a loss that goes on until someone stanches it, which is why it suits finances, membership and morale more than sudden collapses.

8. 8
   nounhistoricaluncountable

   The historical medical practice of deliberately drawing blood from a patient in an effort to cure or prevent disease.

   The physician prescribed bleeding to restore what he believed was a balance of humors.

   Notwithstanding the employ of general and local bleeding, blisters, &c., the patient died on the fourth day after entrance.

   1833, R. J. Bertin, Treatise on the Diseases of the Heart

   Similarbloodletting, phlebotomy

   Note

   Doctors once ordered bleeding as routinely as blisters. Charles W. Chauncy's 1833 translation of R. J. Bertin's Treatise on the Diseases of the Heart records "general and local bleeding" given to a patient who died anyway. The word now reads as historical. In modern medical writing, bleeding is a symptom to stop, and the old practice is called bloodletting.

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