medicinal leech
a bloodsucking leech, Hirudo medicinalis, of Europe, introduced into the northeastern United States, usually green with brown stripes, up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) long: once used by physicians to bleed patients.
Origin of medicinal leech
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Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use medicinal leech in a sentence
Its close resemblance to the medicinal leech caused the mistake to be overlooked until too late.
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe | Edgar Allan PoeThe medicinal leech, was, however, once pretty common in the lakes and pools of the north of England.
Country Walks of a Naturalist with His Children | W. HoughtonThe eyes are ranged as in the common medicinal leech of Europe; the four anterior ones rather larger than the others.
Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon | J. Emerson TennentThe same result has followed from keeping together different varieties of the medicinal leech.
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection | Charles DarwinA common European species of leech much used for this purpose is known as the "medicinal leech."
Elementary Zoology, Second Edition | Vernon L. Kellogg
British Dictionary definitions for medicinal leech
a large European freshwater leech, Hirudo medicinalis, formerly used in medical bloodletting
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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