blood

Less common meanings

6. 6
   noununcountable

   Newer or younger members added to a group or organization and prized for the energy or new thinking they contribute.

   After a decade with the same board, the charity badly needed new blood.

   The firm hired a wave of recent graduates, hoping fresh blood would shake up its tired product line.

   UsageAlmost always new blood, fresh blood or young blood, with verbs like need, bring in or inject.

   Similartalent

7. 7
   verbUKtransitivebritish

   To let a newcomer, typically a young player, take part in a genuine match, competition, or activity for the first time.

   The selectors chose to blood three uncapped youngsters in the final Test of the series.

   The paper blooded its new trainee reporter by sending her out to cover election night.

   UsageA selector bloods a newcomer, and the newcomer is blooded: blooded in the first team at seventeen.

   Similarinitiate

   Note

   This is the figurative cousin of the hunting initiation, in which a novice was smeared with the blood of a first kill. It also reaches beyond sport to any first real assignment, such as a new reporter's first election night. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • Hunting initiation called blooding involved smearing a novice with blood from the first kill witnessed. en.wiktionary.org
8. 8
   smear redverbraretransitive

   To cause something to become covered or stained with blood.

   Similarbloody

9. 9
   friend (slang)nounslangcountable or uncountable

   A friend or mate, especially as a familiar way of addressing one; also spelled blud.

   When I walked into the shop, the owner looked up and said, 'What's good, blood? Haven't seen you in weeks.'

   'You made it, blood!' Marcus shouted when his old school friend walked into the party.

   Similarbro, bruv, fam, mate, homie

   Note

   A term of solidarity in African-American Vernacular English and in British street slang, where the spelling blud came in through Jamaican speech. It can name a friend (my blood from back home) or address one directly (What's good, blood?). Its warmth comes from the kinship sense: a friend is spoken of as family. Because it signals belonging, it sounds most natural among peers who already share it. Source

   Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • Blood is associated with African-American Vernacular English as a term for a friend or acquaintance. en.wiktionary.org
   • Blud occurs in British slang, specifically Multicultural London English. pure-oai.bham.ac.uk
   • British slang blud has Jamaican origins. en.wiktionary.org
   • The friendly sense draws on blood as a metaphor for family relationship. en.wikipedia.org
10. 10
    first kill riteverbtransitive

    To give someone a first taste of war or of a blood sport, traditionally marking the occasion by daubing them with blood from the first kill they witness.

    The general chose to blood his new recruits in a small skirmish first.

    The huntsman blooded her by marking her cheeks after the fox was taken.

    Similarinitiate

11. 11
    drain (medicine)verbarchaichistoricaltransitive

    To draw blood from (a person or animal) as a medical treatment; to bleed.

    On Sᵗ Stephens day the Farrier came constantly and blouded all the Cart-horses.

    1687, John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme

    Mr Western, who imputed these symptoms in his daughter to her fall, advised her to be presently blooded by way of prevention.

    1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones

    Similarbleed

    Note

    The verb of bloodletting, built on the humoral theory that illness could come from too much blood. Fielding's Squire Western advises his daughter to be "presently blooded." Frances Burney records a patient blooded twelve times in a fortnight, losing 75 ounces. John Aubrey's farrier blooded cart-horses too. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • The historical medical verb blood means to perform bloodletting. en.wiktionary.org
    • Humoral theory explained illness through imbalances of bodily fluids and supported removing excess through bloodletting. nlm.nih.gov
    • In Fielding's Tom Jones, Squire Western advises that his daughter be presently blooded; the wording occurs in the narration. gutenberg.org
    • Burney records a report that a patient was blooded twelve times within a fortnight and lost seventy-five ounces of blood. gutenberg.org
    • Aubrey records a farrier blooding the household's cart-horses. en.wikisource.org
12. 12
    medieval humornounhistoricalcountable or uncountable

    One of the four humors of classical and medieval medicine, believed to govern a person's health and temperament.

    Medieval physicians held that an excess of blood left a patient flushed and reckless.

    According to the old theory, blood ruled the body in spring and gave a man his cheerful spirits.

    Note

    A word from the old medicine of humors, in which health depended on a balance of four fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. Blood was the warm, vigorous humor, and the temperament it ruled was called sanguine. The same framework explains blood as temper and the practice of bloodletting. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • Humoral medicine held that health depended on balancing four fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. nlm.nih.gov
    • Blood was classified as a warm humor. lemdo.uvic.ca
    • Blood was associated with an active temperament called sanguine. en.wikipedia.org
    • The humoral framework connected bodily fluids with emotional disposition, supporting the explanation of blood as temper. nlm.nih.gov
    • Bloodletting was used to maintain or restore humoral balance. nlm.nih.gov
13. 13
    verbobsoletetransitive

    To make eager for combat or bloodshed; to incite or enrage against an opponent.

    Note

    An obsolete use, easily mistaken for the hunting initiation: here the verb rouses fury rather than marking a first kill. Because the sense has fallen away, a modern reader who meets troops blooded for an assault will think of initiation. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Blood had an obsolete verb sense meaning to incite or enrage, distinct from initiation through a first kill. en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    dandynounobsoletecountable or uncountable

    A lively, showy man, especially a fashionable young man about town; a rake or dandy.

    Similardandy, beau, fop, gallant, dude

    Note

    Fashionable young men of spirit were once called bloods. Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing mocks "all the hot bloods between fourteen and five and thirty." By Vanity Fair (1847–48), Thackeray was already looking back at "a dandy or blood of those days." Fop and popinjay stress vanity, while blood suggests reckless, high-spirited youth. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

    • Bloods was historically used for fashionable young men. gutenberg.org
    • Much Ado About Nothing is by William Shakespeare. gutenberg.org
    • The quoted words occur in Much Ado About Nothing, spoken by Borachio while mocking fashion and its influence on young men; hyphenation varies between editions. gutenberg.org
    • Vanity Fair was first published serially in 1847–1848. en.wikipedia.org
    • William Makepeace Thackeray wrote Vanity Fair. en.wikisource.org
    • The retrospective phrase occurs in the narrator's description in Vanity Fair, chapter 3. gutenberg.org
15. 15
    noun

    A horse of good pedigree; a well-bred horse such as a thoroughbred.
16. 16
    noun

    The sap or juice of a plant or fruit, especially when red, thought of as its blood.