Forms: 6 fleume, 7 flame, fleame, fleme, (8 fleem, flegme), 8, 9 dial. flem, (fleyam, vlem), 7– fleam. Also 8 phleam, 9 phleme. See also FLUE. [a. OF. flieme (Fr. flamme) = Pr. flecme, Sp. fleme, It. fiama, repr. med.L. fletoma (Wr.-Wülck., 400), flēdomum (Leiden Gloss., OET., 114), from late Lat. flebotomum, ad. Gr. φλεβοτόμον: see PHLEBOTOMY. From the med.L. forms were adopted OE. flýtme, OHG. flietuma, fliedema (MHG. fliedeme, vliete(n, vliedene, mod.Ger. fliete); cf. also MDu. vlîme, vlieme. The mod.F. use = sense 2 below.]

1

  1.  A surgical instrument for letting blood or for lancing the gums; a lancet. In Great Britain Obs. or arch.; the U.S. dicts. treat it as still current for a gum-lancet.

2

[a. 1000.  Aldhelm Gl., in Zeitschr. f. d. A., IX. 453. Flebotomo, blodsexe vel flytman.]

3

1552.  Huloet, Bloude lettynge … the instrumente wherwyth bloude is letten, called a fleume.

4

1611.  Cotgr., Deschaussoir, a Fleame; the toole wherewith Barbers diuide the gum from the tooth which they would draw out.

5

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. xiii. 481/2. An old, or Ancient Flegme, or Fleame.

6

1712.  E. Cooke, Voy. S. Sea, 76. For letting Blood, they have a safe Way, doing it with a little Fleem made of Flint, which they fasten’d to a Stick, and with a little Stroke cut the Vein.

7

1790.  Wolcott (P. Pindar), Ep. to J. Bruce, 230, Wks. 1812, II. 364.

        Drew not from Royal Arms the purple tide,
Nor scotch’d with fleams a sceptred Lady’s hide.

8

1859.  Thackeray, Virgin., xl. Undo his neckcloth, somebody,—he may be dead; and get a fleam, Gumbo, and bleed him.

9

1865.  E. B. Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind, viii. 219. The sharp stone with which the native phleme used to be armed.

10

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 881/2. Fleam.… A gum-lancet.

11

  2.  A kind of lancet used for bleeding horses.

12

1616.  Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 1. xxviii. 123 The Farriers, and therefore he must neuer be vnprouided of his budget and pouch furnisht with tooles and necessaries about harnesse and saddles, nor yet of his yron stuffe for his beasts feet: as namely needle threed and silke, fleame to let bloud with, knife to launce and cut with, corner, buttrys, pincers, hammer, paring-yron, and rape.

13

1748.  trans. Vegetius’ Distemp. Horses, 46. You shall Strike into it a Fleam made of hard steel, and well sharpened at the Point upon Hones.

14

1769.  De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit., III. 104. The principal Manufactures here [in Sheffield] are Knives, Forks, Scissars, Razors, Lancets, Phleams, [etc.].

15

1847.  Youatt, Horse, xi. 362. Bleeding. This operation is performed with a fleam or a lancet.

16

  3.  Comb., as fleam-shaped adj. Also fleam-stick (see quot. 1842); fleam-tooth, a fleam-shaped tooth of a saw.

17

1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xvii. 206. A single rusty hoop from a current-drifted cask might have furnished all the knives of the party; but the *fleam-shaped tips of their lances were of unmistakable steel, and were riveted to the tapering bony point, with no mean skill.

18

1842.  Akerman, Gloss. Wilts, *Flem-stick, the small staff used to strike the flem into the vein.

19

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 881/2. *Fleam-tooth. Of a saw. One in the form of an isosceles triangle.

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