vampire

[vam-pahyuh r]

noun

a preternatural being, commonly believed to be a reanimated corpse, that is said to suck the blood of sleeping persons at night.

(in Eastern European folklore) a corpse, animated by an undeparted soul or demon, that periodically leaves the grave and disturbs the living, until it is exhumed and impaled or burned.

a person who preys ruthlessly upon others; extortionist.

a woman who unscrupulously exploits, ruins, or degrades the men she seduces.

an actress noted for her roles as an unscrupulous seductress: the vampires of the silent movies.

Origin of vampire

1725–35; (< F) < German Vampir < Serbo-Croatian vàmpīr, alteration of earlier upir (by confusion with doublets such as vȁzdūh, ȕzdūh air (< Slavic vŭ-), and with intrusive nasal, as in dùbrava, dumbrȁva grove); akin to Czech upír, Polish upiór, Old Russian upyrĭ, upirĭ, (Russian upýrʾ) < Slavic *u-pirĭ or *ǫ-pirĭ, probably a deverbal compound with *per- fly, rush (literal meaning variously interpreted)

Related formsvam·pir·ic

[vam-pir-ik] /væmˈpɪr ɪk/, vam·pir·ish

[vam-pahyuh r-ish] /ˈvæm paɪər ɪʃ/, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for vampires

beast, villain, monster, vampire, phantom, devil, demon, soul, shadow, specter, vision, parasite, sponge, freeloader, tick, leech, extortioner, visitor, haunt, bogeyman

Examples from the Web for vampires

Contemporary Examples of vampires

This Tuesday, a bunch of vampires and would-be superheroes will knock on our doors and ask us to reward them.
Election Day Is Scarier Than Halloween
P. J. O’Rourke
November 1, 2014
Bill, of course, is in the latter stages of Hep V—an AIDS-like virus that preys on vampires.
'True Blood' Ends With a Whimper: The Sexy HBO Vampire Series Is (Finally) Over
Marlow Stern
August 25, 2014
I already have to share too much with all the vampires of the world.
Chloe Sevigny on ‘The Cosmopolitans,’ New York’s Frat Boy Takeover, and ‘Asshole’ Michael Alig
Marlow Stern
August 24, 2014
I wanted to find a vessel to carry all of these ideas I have about vampires.
Vampires without Glitter or Girl Problems: Inside Guillermo del Toro’s ‘The Strain’
Andrew Romano
July 14, 2014
In contrast, The Strain was returning to the roots of vampires as scary parasitic creatures—and I liked that.
Vampires without Glitter or Girl Problems: Inside Guillermo del Toro’s ‘The Strain’
Andrew Romano
July 14, 2014

Historical Examples of vampires

My first and principal object was to discourse of the vampires of Hungary.
The Phantom World
Augustin Calmet
Thence the wakefulness, dreams, and pretended apparitions of vampires.
The Phantom World
Augustin Calmet
Such are nearly the contents of the work of M. Herenberg on vampires.
The Phantom World
Augustin Calmet
The vampires of which we are discoursing are very different from all those just mentioned.
The Phantom World
Augustin Calmet
The footnotes relating to vampires (pp. 323-4) reference modern Greek.
Russian Fairy Tales
W. R. S. Ralston

British Dictionary definitions for vampires

vampire

noun

(in European folklore) a corpse that rises nightly from its grave to drink the blood of the living

See vampire bat

a person who preys mercilessly upon others, such as a blackmailer

See vamp 1 (def. 1)

theatre a trapdoor on a stage

Derived Formsvampiric (væmˈpɪrɪk) or vampirish, adjective

Word Origin for vampire

C18: from French, from German Vampir, from Magyar; perhaps related to Turkish uber witch, Russian upyr vampire

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 vampires

vampire

1734, from French vampire or German Vampir (1732, in an account of Hungarian vampires), from Hungarian vampir, from Old Church Slavonic opiri (cf. Serbian vampir, Bulgarian vapir, Ukrainian uper), said by Slavic linguist Franc Miklošič to be ultimtely from Kazan Tatar ubyr "witch," but Max Vasmer, an expert in this linguistic area, finds that phonetically doubtful. An Eastern European creature popularized in English by late 19c. gothic novels, however there are scattered English accounts of night-walking, blood-gorged, plague-spreading undead corpses from as far back as 1196. Applied 1774 by French biologist Buffon to a species of South American blood-sucking bat.

vampires in Culture

vampires

Originally part of central European folklore, they now appear in horror stories as living corpses who need to feed on human blood. A vampire will leave his coffin at night, disguised as a great bat, to seek his innocent victims, bite their necks with his long, sharp teeth, and suck their blood.

Note

The most famous vampire is Count Dracula, from the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.