bleed
Americanverb (used without object)
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bleeds,
present (3rd person singular)
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bled,
past participle, past
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bleeding
present participle
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to lose blood from the vascular system, either internally into the body or externally through a natural orifice or break in the skin.
to bleed from the mouth.
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(of injured tissue, excrescences, etc.) to exude blood.
a wart that is bleeding.
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(of a plant) to exude sap, resin, etc., from a wound.
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(of dye or paint) to run or become diffused.
All the colors bled when the dress was washed.
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(of a liquid) to ooze or flow out.
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to feel pity, sorrow, or anguish.
My heart bleeds for you. A nation bleeds for its dead heroes.
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to suffer wounds or death, as in battle.
The soldiers bled for the cause.
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(of a broadcast signal) to interfere with another signal.
CB transmissions bleeding over into walkie-talkies.
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Printing. (of printed matter) to run off the edges of a page, either by design or through mutilation caused by too close trimming.
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Slang. to pay out money, as when overcharged or threatened with extortion.
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Metallurgy. (of a cooling ingot or casting) to have molten metal force its way through the solidified exterior because of internal gas pressure.
verb (used with object)
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bleeds,
present (3rd person singular)
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bled,
past participle, past
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bleeding
present participle
-
to cause to lose blood, especially surgically.
Doctors no longer bleed their patients to reduce fever.
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to lose or emit (blood or sap).
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to drain or draw sap, water, electricity, etc., from (something).
to bleed a pipeline of excess air.
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to remove trapped air from (as an automotive brake system) by opening a bleeder valve.
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to obtain an excessive amount from; extort money from.
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Printing.
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to permit (printed illustrations or ornamentation) to run off the page or sheet.
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to trim the margin of (a book or sheet) so closely as to mutilate the text or illustration.
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noun
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Printing.
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a sheet or page margin trimmed so as to mutilate the text or illustration.
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a part thus trimmed off.
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Medicine/Medical. an instance of bleeding; hemorrhage.
an intracranial bleed.
adjective
verb phrase
idioms
verb
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(intr) to lose or emit blood
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(tr) to remove or draw blood from (a person or animal)
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(intr) to be injured or die, as for a cause or one's country
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(of plants) to exude (sap or resin), esp from a cut
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informal (tr) to obtain relatively large amounts of money, goods, etc, esp by extortion
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(tr) to draw liquid or gas from (a container or enclosed system)
to bleed the hydraulic brakes
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(intr) (of dye or paint) to run or become mixed, as when wet
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to print or be printed so that text, illustrations, etc, run off the trimmed page
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(tr) to trim (the edges of a printed sheet) so closely as to cut off some of the printed matter
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(intr) civil engineering building trades (of a mixture) to exude (a liquid) during compaction, such as water from cement
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to extort gradually all the resources of a person or thing
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used to express sympathetic grief, but often used ironically
noun
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printing
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an illustration or sheet trimmed so that some matter is bled
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( as modifier )
a bleed page
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printing the trimmings of a sheet that has been bled
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bleedsimple
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bleedssimple
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have bledperfect
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has bledperfect
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am bleedingprogressive
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are bleedingprogressive
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is bleedingprogressive
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have been bleedingperfect progressive
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has been bleedingperfect progressive
Past
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bledsimple
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had bledperfect
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was bleedingprogressive
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were bleedingprogressive
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had been bleedingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bleed
before 1000; Middle English bleden, Old English blēdan, derivative of blōd blood
Explanation
When you bleed, blood runs or oozes out of your body. Cutting your finger when you're chopping vegetables can make you bleed. Some kind of illness or injury, particularly one that cuts or scrapes your skin, can make you bleed. In long ago days of medical care, doctors would deliberately bleed patients to treat specific conditions, though today we mainly bleed due to accidents. You can also use bleed to mean "drain of money or resources," as when a greedy relative bleeds his wealthy grandmother, using her fortune to buy himself fancy cars.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Saskia was having a stroke - specifically, a brain bleed caused by a ruptured arteriovenous malformation, an abnormal cluster of blood vessels connecting arteries and veins.
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026
She relishes the tedious sausage-making of statecraft, the kind of stuff that makes you and me bleed from our ears.
From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2026
Those prices have begun to bleed into other goods, with the crisis also having an effect on crucial fertiliser supplies.
From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026
Higher prices now “will start to bleed into those hedging plans, and that will ultimately bleed into the end consumers.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
The vomiting attack appears to have broken some blood vessels in his nose—he gets a nose bleed.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
“Where, I think right now he feels really confident, swinging the bat well, and the hope is that this one bleeds into October as well.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2026
But these sights are drained of their warmth, depicted with a cold, eerie hum that, when it bleeds into the roar of suffering miles away, becomes a deafening cacophony.
From Salon ● Sep. 21, 2026
Pill worries that the reassurance central-bank policy provides bleeds into monetary policy by boosting borrowing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
"We look at this similarly to what happened with Belgium's golden generation a few years ago - a relatively small nation that simply bleeds football," said Korssund.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2026
I throw it into the tub and watch as the water eats away at the parchment, and the ink bleeds until it disintegrates into nothing.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
That felt like a taunt as deindustrialization bled the city out.
From Slate ● Oct. 28, 2026
That bled into the 20 or so other pieces Watts wrote, which also appear in dozens of international spin-offs.
From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2026
It was common to say that his hell-for-leather personal life bled into his film persona.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
The unit has bled tens of billions of dollars, and Meta has increasingly shifted its hardware focus toward AI-powered smart glasses, a promising consumer release outside social media.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
I applied pressure to the artery with my fingertips, and then more pressure, and it still bled.
From "Adrift" by Paul Griffin
If there is no other obvious cause for the bleeding, such as piles, the NHS recommends that you ask for an appointment with your GP, external.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026
He was cleared to return after a CT scan showed no signs of internal bleeding.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026
Brand-switching picked up around the release of new models, showing that model companies risk losing revenue if they don’t stay at the bleeding edge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026
In the first three months after insertion, for instance, 69 percent of participants experienced heavy bleeding, and 28 percent had pelvic discomfort.
From Slate ● Oct. 27, 2026
Her knees were bleeding, and she’d lost a shoe.
From "Eleven" by Tom Rogers
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