bloodletting
[bluhd-let-ing]
- the act or practice of letting blood by opening a vein; phlebotomy.
- bloodshed or slaughter.
- bloodbath.
- Informal. severe cutbacks or reduction in personnel, appropriations, etc.: The company went through a period of bloodletting in the 1970s.
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Origin of bloodletting
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for bloodletting
Contemporary Examples
The bloodletting in Syria has unfolded with deliberate relentlessness.
So the question is, can Lebanon survive the "Lebanonization" of Syria without another abominable round of bloodletting?
As bloodletting continues and criminals take advantage of the political chaos, ordinary Egyptians are arming themselves.
He shrugged, “I did not expect it to go on this long,” he said of the bloodletting that had cost 100,000 lives.
Meantime, Syrians still drown in bloodletting, chaos, and refugees, while the Assad side weakens only by endless inches.
Historical Examples
This fever will cure him, they say it sobers like bloodletting.
Beauchamp's Career, CompleteGeorge Meredith
Quarrels were frequent enough; bloodletting was a common occupation.
With Wellington in SpainF. S. Brereton
"Bloodletting, A little more," the letter recommending, 249.
Bloodletting is supererogatory anyway, and serves merely to whet the appetite.
L-basJ. K. Huysmans
Calomel and bloodletting, for example, were two of the principal ones.
Criminal PsychologyHans Gross
bloodletting
(blŭd′lĕt′ĭng)- The therapeutic removal of blood, usually from a vein.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.