any bloodsucking or carnivorous aquatic or terrestrial worm of the class Hirudinea, certain freshwater species of which were formerly much used in medicine for bloodletting.
a person who clings to another for personal gain, especially without giving anything in return, and usually with the implication or effect of exhausting the other's resources; parasite.
Archaic. an instrument used for drawing blood.
to apply leeches to, so as to bleed.
to cling to and feed upon or drain, as a leech.
His relatives leeched him until his entire fortune was exhausted.
Archaic. to cure; heal.
either of the lateral edges of a square sail.
the after edge of a fore-and-aft sail.
any annelid worm of the class Hirudinea, which have a sucker at each end of the body and feed on the blood or tissues of other animals See also horseleech medicinal leech
a person who clings to or preys on another person
an archaic word for physician
( in combination )
leechcraft
to cling or adhere persistently to something
First recorded before 900; Middle English lech(e), Old English lǣce, lȳce; replacing (by association with leech 2 ) Middle English liche, Old English lȳce; cognate with Middle Dutch lake, leke, lieke; akin to Old English lūcan “to pull up, pull out,” Middle High German liechen “to pull”
First recorded before 950; Middle English leche, lech, lecche, Old English lǣce, lēce; cognate with Old Frisian letza, leischa, Old Saxon lāki, Old High German lāhhi, Gothic lēkeis; akin to Old Norse lǣknir
First recorded in 1480–90; earlier lek, leche, lyche; akin to Dutch lijk “leech, leech line,” Old Norse līk nautical term of uncertain meaning, but probably “bolt rope, leech line”
A leech is a kind of worm that feeds by sucking blood from other animals. You might find yourself needing to pull a leech off your leg after swimming in a lake. Because leeches are parasites, it's common for people to use the word as a metaphor for someone who sponges off of other people. If you have a friend who is always borrowing money but never pays it back, and who is known for requesting favors without granting them in return, you can call him a leech. The blood-sucking leech was once commonly used by doctors who treated patients by "bleeding" them, a practice that's still occasionally used in medicine today.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And I wanted to leech off of that.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2026
Rory turns into sandworm fodder the second he admits his slimy MO, suggesting that the smarmy leech was beyond redemption.
From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2024
It may be that one of the problems holding up the identification of leech leaping for all these years was the absence of humans with cameras.
From New York Times ● Jun. 20, 2024
They hope that their new leech devices will soon be able to play a part in the health of children and anyone else who is afraid of needles.
From Science Daily ● May 2, 2024
It was the worst memory he had, and it latched onto his brain like a leech.
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
“The discounts widened sharply after the Leech news broke, which you’d expect. But I’m not rushing in.”
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 26, 2026
Scott, at CEF Advisors, observes that Wamco funds have indeed faced an additional problem in the form of fallout from the Leech scandal.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 26, 2026
Leech, the former chief investment officer of Western Asset Management, pleaded guilty Friday to a single charge of obstructing a regulatory proceeding.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Maddie Leech is making her worlds debut in Chile and finished sixth in the women's scratch race.
From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2025
"Blackthumb keeps all the blades locked up, I told you that a hundred times. Is this for Lord Leech?"
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Under a chaotic canopy woven with vines and studded with fearsome spiked stems, the group crossed streams, waded through mud and picked off dozens of leeches.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
We get a clear-eyed look at disgust, a nearly universal human response to the likes of maggots, cockroaches, ticks, leeches, slugs and lice.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
In “Parasite,” Bong constructs a multilayered question over who the titular leeches are.
From Salon ● Mar. 25, 2025
They’re tipped into a chemical solution which leeches the gold out into the liquid.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2024
As I sat there, thoroughly miserable, waiting for the leeches to finish sucking my blood, I thought back to Anastasia and Mushie and Ikwa and Songololo, going about their daily lives as best they could.
From "Endangered" by Eliot Schrefer
Luxury has been the death of us, our interests and our passions leeched to a dreary gray blur of programming.
From Salon ● Oct. 1, 2024
But multiple pharmacy owners told The Oregonian/OregonLive that an even larger challenge is the big share of profits leeched off by the pharmacy benefit managers.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 6, 2024
He said: "We were absolutely blown away when we saw the contents in there, as we might have expected them to have leeched out."
From BBC ● Feb. 11, 2024
The waste might also be leeched into the soil, or into harder sediment, or, worst case, might have made its way into the groundwater.
From Slate ● Apr. 19, 2022
His hands were in his pockets, and he looked sad and wistful, and maybe a bit faded, like something had leeched most of the color from him.
From "Ophie's Ghosts" by Justina Ireland
By claiming to believe in demons, the vice president is leeching onto another youth trend, and probably getting a hefty boost in social media algorithms for it.
From Salon ● Apr. 1, 2026
These folks were, in fact, the flimsy remnants of Cuomo’s actual base: high-status opportunists leeching off one of their own.
From Slate ● Nov. 4, 2025
In the meantime, Millie told the inquiry "confusion, frustration and anxiety... was leeching into my home".
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2025
The trick to their method: Instead of leeching with an excess of citric acid like conventional methods, they use a relatively small amount.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 15, 2024
Her gift, which they had never even known worked in reverse, was leeching the life out of all the plants she touched.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
