bloodsucker

[bluhd-suhk-er]

See more synonyms for bloodsucker on Thesaurus.com

noun

any animal that sucks blood, especially a leech.
an extortioner or usurer.
sponger(def 2).

Origin of bloodsucker

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at blood, sucker

Related formsblood·suck·ing, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for bloodsucking

parasitical

Examples from the Web for bloodsucking

Contemporary Examples of bloodsucking

A bloodsucking skill because, if done right, it means, in a business sense, never growing old.
The Stacks: How Leonard Chess Helped Make Muddy Waters
Alex Belth
August 2, 2014
It does push him toward drawing a caricature of his own, one of slathering, bloodsucking right-wingers.
In Defense of the British Worker
Peter Hoskin
July 14, 2011

Historical Examples of bloodsucking

I have to pay a guinea to a bloodsucking composer when I want a song.
The Grey Wig: Stories and Novelettes
Israel Zangwill
Again, there are four things which like the bloodsucking horse-leech are always insatiable.
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Proverbs
R. F. Horton
If he had drowned thee, thou wouldst not have lived to bite my poor girl, like a bloodsucking vampire.
The Legend of Ulenspiegel, Vol. II (of 2)
Charles de Coster
This should not appear strange when it is considered that some animals harbor several thousand of the bloodsucking parasites.
Special Report on Diseases of Cattle
U.S. Department of Agriculture

British Dictionary definitions for bloodsucking

bloodsucker

noun

an animal that sucks blood, esp a leech or mosquito
a person or thing that preys upon another person, esp by extorting money

Derived Formsbloodsucking, adjective

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

Word Origin and History for bloodsucking

bloodsucker

also blood-sucker, late 14c., of animals, from blood (n.) + sucker (n.); in the figurative sense, of persons, it is attested from 1660s.