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American Dictionary of the English Language

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Leech


LEECH, noun

1. A physician; a professor of the art of healing.

[This word, in the United States, is nearly or wholly obsolete. Even cow leech is not used.]

2. A blood-sucker; an animal of the genus Hirudo, a species of aquatic worm, which is used in the medical art for topical bleeding. One large species of this animal is called horse-leech.

3. In seamen's language, the border or edge of a sail, which is sloping or perpendicular; as the fore-leech, the after-leech, etc.