blood

Some insects are known for consuming blood.

It cannot be denied it [the chameleon] is (if not the moſt of any) a very abſtemious animall, and ſuch as by reaſon of its frigidity, paucity of bloud, and latitancy in the winter (about which time the obſervations are often made) will long ſubſist without a viſible ſuſtentation.

1650, Thomas Browne, “Of the Cameleon”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 133:

The case was that of a murder. It had an element of mystery about it, however, which was puzzling the authorities. A turban and loincloth soaked in blood had been found; also a staff.

1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 4, in Pulling the Strings:

An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.

2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):

A vital liquid flowing in the bodies of many types of animals that usually conveys nutrients and oxygen. In vertebrates, it is colored red by hemoglobin, is conveyed by arteries and veins, is pumped by the heart and is usually generated in bone marrow.

a friend of our own blood

1690, Edmund Waller, The Maid's Tragedy Altered:

to share the blood of Saxon royalty

1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

A family relationship due to birth, such as that between siblings; contrasted with relationships due to marriage or adoption. See blood relative, blood relation.

(historical) One of the four humours in the human body.

The endometrial lining as it is shed in menstruation; menstrual fluid.

When I got Bilbo to their surgery the vet took Bilbo in for tests. […] His bloods showed nothing wrong at all.

2016, Steve Jamieson, Bilbo the Lifeguard Dog:

(medicine, countable) A blood test or blood sample.

It is no tautology to call the blood of the grape red or purple, because the juice of that fruit was sometimes white and sometimes black or dark. The arterial blood of our bodies is red, but the venous is called "black blood."

1841, Benjamin Parsons, Anti-Bacchus, page 95:

Disbudding is merely a species of pruning, and should be done as soon as the lateral buds begin to develop on the cane. It diverts the flow of the plant's blood from many buds into one or a few, thus increasing the size of the flower, [...]

1901, Levi Leslie Lamborn, American Carnation Culture, fourth edition, page 57:

Look at a leaf. On it are many little raised lines which reach out to all parts of the leaf and back to the stem and twig. These are "veins," full of the tree's blood. It is white and looks very much like water; [...]

1916, John Gordon Dorrance, The Story of the Forest, page 44:

The sap or juice which flows in or from plants.

He washed[…]his clothes in the blood of grapes.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 49:11:

(poetic) The juice of anything, especially if red.

When thou perceive his blood inclined to mirth

c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

There was some little undefinable coolness between old General Chattesworth and Devereux. He admired the young fellow, and he liked good blood in his corps, but somehow he was glad when he thought he was likely to go. When old Bligh, of the Magazine, commended the handsome young dog's good looks, the general would grow grave all at once […]

1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

Seest thou not[…]how giddily 'a turns about all the hot bloods between fourteen and five and thirty?

1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:

[…] it was the morning costume of a dandy or blood of those days […]

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 3, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

(obsolete) A lively, showy man; a rake; a dandy.

They came looking for blood.

Our Father’s Death
Would fill up all the Guilt of Civil War,
And cloſe the Scene of Blood.

1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1:

Under Henry III. Amboise ceased to be a slaughter-house, as in the preceding reign, but it remained a sort of state prison. It is related that Anne d'Este of Ferrara, wife of Duc de Guise, while assisting once at a series of executions out of the windows of the castle with Catherine de Medicis, suddenly overcome by the horror of the spectacle, turned away, exclaiming passionately, "Ah Madame! how all this blood calls out for blood! what vengeance is being prepared! May God have pity on your sons and on mine!"

1873, The Monthly Packet of Evening Readings for Members of the English Church, page 31:

He watched out for the men in his unit, for the one woman who had saved them so many years ago when they were still raw teens out for blood and revenge on the world, and he watched out for anyone else they stumbled across in their lives that needed protection.

2007, Christine Feehan, Deadly Game, Penguin, →ISBN, page 55:

The standard assessment suggests that as the munera became purely a spectacle, they became more murderous because the public wanted to see blood. That the people of Rome were able to indulge this degenerate desire was merely due to the degraded status of the professional gladiator.

2010, Alison Futrell, Blood in the Arena: The Spectacle of Roman Power, University of Texas Press, →ISBN, page 169:

(especially African-American Vernacular) A friend or acquaintance, especially one who is black and male.

Alternative letter-case form of Blood (“member of a certain gang”)

Blood I swear she just gave man extra chicken? Two fat pieces of chicken.

2017, Joseph Barnes Phillips, Big Foot ...and Tiny Little Heartstrings:

(UK, MLE, slang) Alternative form of blud (“Informal address to a male.”)

en-noun

blood (countable and uncountable, plural bloods)

bloods (plural)
bloud (alternative)
bloode (alternative)

Belizean Creole: blod

Torres Strait Creole: blad

→ Greek: μπλάντι (blánti)

daaʔ

vital liquid flowing in human and animal bodies

gjak

family relationship due to birth, e.g. between siblings

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃-?
Proto-Germanic *blōþą
Proto-West Germanic *blōd
Old English blōd
Middle English blood
English blood
From Middle English blood, from Old English blōd, from Proto-West Germanic *blōd, from Proto-Germanic *blōþą, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- ("to swell") + -ó- (thematic vowel) + -to (nominalizer), i.e. "that which bursts out". Cognate with Saterland Frisian Bloud, West Frisian bloed, Dutch bloed, German Blut, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian blod, Icelandic and Faroese blóð.


blood

The French gentleman and Mr Adderly, at the desire of their commanding officer, had raised up the body of Jones, but as they could perceive but little (if any) sign of life in him, they again let him fall, Adderly damning him for having blooded his wastecoat […]

1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

(transitive) To cause something to be covered with blood; to bloody.

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

1687, John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, page 27:

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, Folio Society, published 1973, page 121:

She had been blooded, he said, 12 times in this last fortnight, and had lost 75 ounces of blood, besides undergoing blistering,and other discipline.

1785, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin, published 2001, page 212:

(medicine, historical) To let blood (from); to bleed.

(transitive) To initiate into warfare or a blood sport, traditionally by smearing with the blood of the first kill witnessed.

en-verb

blood (third-person singular simple present bloods, present participle blooding, simple past and past participle blooded)

bloods (present singular third-person)
blooding (participle present)
blooded (participle past)
blooded (past)
bloud (alternative)
bloode (alternative)