American Heritage Dictionary Entry: bleed HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key. Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window. guide to the dictionary THE USAGE PANEL The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions. The Panelists NEED HELP SOLVING A CROSSWORD PUZZLE? Go to our Crossword Puzzle Solver and type in the letters that you know, and the Solver will produce a list of possible solutions. -- AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android. THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more. OPEN DICTIONARY PROJECT Share your ideas for new words and new meanings of old words! Start Sharing Now! -- See word lists from the best-selling 100 Words Series! Find out more! INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES? Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com bleed (blēd) Share: Tweet v. bled (blĕd), bleed·ing, bleeds v.intr. 1. To emit or lose blood. 2. To be wounded, especially in battle. 3. To feel sympathetic grief or anguish: My heart bleeds for the victims of the air crash. 4. To exude a fluid such as sap. 5. To pay out money, especially an exorbitant amount. 6. a. To run together or be diffused, as dyes in wet cloth. b. To undergo or be subject to such a diffusion of color: The madras skirt bled when it was first washed. 7. To show through a layer of paint, as a stain or resin in wood. 8. To be printed so as to go off the edge or edges of a page after trimming. v.tr. 1. a. To take or remove blood from. b. To extract sap or juice from. 2. a. To draw liquid or gaseous contents from; drain. b. To draw off (liquid or gaseous matter) from a container. 3. a. To obtain money from, especially by improper means. b. To drain of all valuable resources: "Politicians ... never stop inventing illicit enterprises of government that bleed the national economy" (David A. Stockman). 4. a. To cause (an illustration, for example) to bleed. b. To trim (a page, for example) so closely as to mutilate the printed or illustrative matter. n. 1. An instance of bleeding. 2. Illustrative matter that bleeds. 3. a. A page trimmed so as to bleed. b. The part of the page that is trimmed off.Phrasal Verbs: bleed off Aerospace To decrease: "Mike reared the chopper almost vertical to bleed off airspeed" (Robert Coram). bleed out 1. To lose or cause to lose all or almost all of the blood from the body: The victim would have bled out if the paramedics hadn't arrived quickly. The hunter bled out the deer. 2. To lose or cause to lose all or almost all of a substance: Allow the air to bleed out of the system. [Middle English bleden, from Old English blēdan; see bhel-3 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices: Indo-European Roots Semitic Roots The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. 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