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
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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:
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
His face stays neutral yet you can see his own confidence bleed out across the screen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 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
Naturally, the effect on stocks and bonds can and often does bleed over to the period before the election when investors are more confident about the outcome.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Jerry decided to set up a bleed area in a small room near the front of the building, right next to the offices.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
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
Matthew Robert Cooper’s unnerving ambient score bleeds into the relentless dink-dink-dink of the Jeep’s strobing hazard lights.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
Authenticity bleeds into Brook's batting, for better and worse.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
Available tests would yield a diagnostic guess by ruling out other causes, such as strokes, tumors or bleeds in the brain.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026
Five years feels like a lifetime when one day bleeds into the next, and your world doesn’t stretch any farther than the gray electric fence surrounding two miles of shoddy buildings and mud.
From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken
But he didn’t think he was actually a good pitcher until he lucked into bled upon his current changeup.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026
Now without a slipstream, he was 0.4secs down at the first sector and bled time through the lap.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
Digital disaffection has bled into our lives like dye onto white linen, creeping through every inch of the fabric until it’s covered in amorphous patterns of color; some beautiful, some painfully ugly.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026
Over the years, the company has bled hundreds of millions of dollars providing the L.A. sports channels.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
My knee bled, but I didn’t feel a thing.
From "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah
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
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 same genetic group, 4.4 percent of aspirin users experienced major bleeding, compared with 2.1 percent of those receiving a placebo.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 25, 2026
Ebola, which is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and can cause severe internal and external bleeding and organ failure, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the last 50 years.
From Barron's ● Oct. 22, 2026
Silently, I slipped into bed and wrapped my bleeding finger in the blankets.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
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