draw blood

1. Injure someone physically or emotionally. For example, The bullet skimmed his shoulder and barely drew any blood, or That reviewer really knows how to draw blood. This term alludes to drawing blood for diagnostic purposes.

Example Sentences

To tell a story, writes Mr. Johnson, is to “fire it in the kiln of real life, resulting not in a fabrication, but a reality hard enough, sharp enough, to draw blood.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Olusanya spent about 30 minutes preparing for the 3 p.m. appointment, assembling equipment to draw blood, collect a urine sample and check the patient’s vitals and glucose levels.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Not everyone is grooving with him — one employee suddenly leaps from his chair and bites his superior hard enough to draw blood.

Read more on Salon

Every other day, I went back to the fertility clinic so the staff could monitor my vitals and draw blood.

Read more on Slate

Lucy Liu’s 9-year-old son, Rockwell, hasn’t seen his mother draw blood in “Charlie’s Angels” or “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” and certainly not in “Kill Bill, Vol. 1.”

Read more on New York Times

Related Words

• batter 
• break 
• damage 
• harm 
• hurt 
• maim 
• mutilate 
• torture 
• wound