transfuse
Americanverb (used with object)
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transfuses,
present (3rd person singular)
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transfused,
past participle, past
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transfusing
present participle
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to transfer or pass from one to another; transmit; instill.
to transfuse a love of literature to one's students.
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to diffuse into or through; permeate; infuse.
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Medicine/Medical.
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to transfer (blood) into the veins or arteries of a person or animal.
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to inject, as a saline solution, into a blood vessel.
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Archaic. to pour from one container into another.
verb
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to permeate or infuse
a blush transfused her face
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to inject (blood, etc) into a blood vessel
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to give a transfusion to (a patient)
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rare to transfer from one vessel to another, esp by pouring
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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transfusernoun
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transfusableadjective
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transfusibleadjective
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transfusiveadjective
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untransfusedadjective
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untransfusibleadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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transfusesimple
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transfusessimple
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have transfusedperfect
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has transfusedperfect
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am transfusingprogressive
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are transfusingprogressive
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is transfusingprogressive
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have been transfusingperfect progressive
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has been transfusingperfect progressive
Past
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transfusedsimple
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had transfusedperfect
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was transfusingprogressive
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were transfusingprogressive
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had been transfusingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of transfuse
1375–1425; late Middle English transfusen < Latin trānsfūsus , past participle of trānsfundere to transfer by pouring. See trans-, fuse 2
Explanation
To transfuse is to transfer blood from one person to another. If a vampire offers to transfuse your blood, say no and wait for the nurse. To transfuse also refers to instilling less physical things in people, like enthusiasm. If you've ever lost blood, you may have needed a transfusion: blood from someone else pumped into you. When a doctor or nurse performs a transfusion, they're transfusing you. This word applies to other situations where something is being passed along. A good coach can transfuse confidence to their team. Teachers transfuse knowledge and skill. This kind of transfusing is usually a gradual process; transfusing blood is quicker.
Vocabulary lists containing transfuse
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:
An emergency investigational new drug, or e-IND, authorization is required to transfuse convalescent plasma into patients, but not to collect it from donors or distribute it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2020
If our health care workers are compromised, they cannot transfuse.
From Salon ● Mar. 15, 2020
But type O cells lack these antigens, making it possible to transfuse that blood type into anyone.
From Science Magazine ● Jun. 10, 2019
Maharaj’s trial wouldn’t be the first to transfuse plasma from young donors into older people.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 2, 2018
They had to transfuse several units of red cells— How will I tell Soraya?
From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
It may also be possible to design gene therapy to help patients make these antibodies themselves, or use an older technique that transfuses the antibodies directly.
From Reuters ● Jul. 8, 2010
She moulds their habits and she transfuses into them the feelings, motives, and principles which actuate herself.
From Notable Women of Olden Time by Anonymous
There is no repulsive formality, no array of logical presentment to arouse antagonism of thought, but only inglowing enthusiasm, that transfuses the Scriptural appeal, and illuminates it with winning illustration.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 97, November, 1865 by Various
The difficulty imposed in drying, however, is not so much the additional heat required as it is in the rate at which the water transfuses through the solid wood.
From Seasoning of Wood by J. B. (Joseph Bernard) Wagner
Every citizen of the United States transfuses his attachment to his little republic into the common store of American patriotism.
From American Institutions and Their Influence by Alexis de Tocqueville
Modified stem cells are then transfused back into the body, where they multiply and increase the production of stable, well-functioning red cells.
From BBC ● Jan. 30, 2025
Dozens of additional units may have to be transfused if bleeding continues or worsens, he added.
From New York Times ● Jun. 15, 2024
The reason why it is necessary to remove the A and B antigens to create universal donor blood is because they can trigger life-threatening immune reactions when transfused into non-matched recipients.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 29, 2024
The medics couldn’t find a vein on her hands, so they transfused the blood through a vein in her head.
From Reuters ● Dec. 14, 2022
Ad Sororem E. B. “Thy father was transfused into thy blood.”
From A Father of Women and other poems by Alice Christiana Thompson Meynell
Seeing how briskly Kirkpatrick was bleeding, the medics began transfusing her right in the driveway.
From Slate ● Oct. 21, 2025
"I crossed my fingers that I was going to be legally safe, saving these patients' lives by taking them to the operating room and treating their ectopic pregnancy and transfusing blood as needed," Huntsberger said.
From Salon ● Jun. 30, 2023
“This is really just to stop the bleed of losing our nurses to other states and other areas, and now we can start transfusing and really start to build on it.”
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 2, 2022
Not everyone, however, is invested in transfusing mature hemoglobins and are instead harnessing the flexibility of stem cells.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 16, 2022
Galton tried transfusing rabbits with the blood of other rabbits to transmit the gemmules.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
