Forms: 1 lǽce, (lýce), 3 liche, 4–6 leche, 5 Sc. leiche, 6–9 leach, 6– leech. [OE. lǽce, Kentish lýce str. masc. = MDu. lake (Kilian laecke, lijck-laecke, mod.Flemish lijklake), lieke, leke fem.
Commonly regarded as a transf. use of LEECH sb.1; this is plausible, but the forms OE. lyce, early ME. liche, MDu. lieke, suggest that the word was originally distinct, but assimilated to lǽce LEECH sb.1 through popular etymology.]
1. One of the aquatic blood-sucking worms belonging to the order Hirudinea; the ordinary leech used medicinally for drawing blood belongs to the genus Hirudo or Sanguisuga. (See also HORSE-LEECH, land-leech (LAND sb. 11 b), sea-leech, water-leech, etc.)
a. 900. Kentish Glosses, in Wr.-Wülcker, 85/11. Sanguissuge, lyces.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., Ibid., 121/36. Sanguisuga uel hirudo, læce.
a. 1275. Prov. Ælfred, 472, in O. E. Misc., 131. Suket þuru is liche, so dot liche blod.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 291/2. Leche, wy(r)m of þe watur, sanguissuga.
1508. Kennedie, Flyting w. Dunbar, 45. Lat him lay sax leichis on thy lendis.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe (1541), 61. Evacuation by wormes, founde in waters called bloudde suckers or leaches.
1656. Ridgley, Pract. Physick, 154. Leeches set behind the Ears.
1794. Burke, Sp. Impeachm. W. Hastings, Wks. XV. 351. He was driven out of it finally by the rebellion, and, as you may imagine, departed like a leech full of blood.
1803. Med. Jrnl., X. 430. The application of four leeches to each ankle.
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), IV. 2. The hirudo viridis or green leech [is well known to multiply] by longitudinal sections.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. III. iv. 140. There are three principal varieties of Leeches employed in France. These are—1st, the Grey Leech; 2nd, the Green Leech; 3rd, the Dragon Leech … (true English or Speckled Leech).
transf. 1833. Alison, Hist. Europe (1849–50), II. viii. § 34. 261. Those female furies, aptly termed the ‘leeches of the guillotine.’
Proverbial phrase. c. 1839. W. E. Forster, in Reid, Life (1888), I. iv. 115. He [Cobden] is … likely to mistake a crotchet for a principle and stick to it like a leech.
b. Surg. Artificial leech: see quot. 1875.
1858. in Simmonds, Dict. Trade.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., s.v., Artificial Leech, a light glass tube from which the air is expelled by the vapor of ether, and whose mouth is then applied to a previously scarified portion of the body.
1879. St. George’s Hosp. Rep., IX. 497. The artificial leech was applied to the temple on three occasions.
c. fig. One who ‘sticks to’ another for the purpose of getting gain out of him.
1784. Cowper, Task, III. 817. The spendthrift, and the leech That sucks him.
1794. C. Pigott, Female Jockey Club (ed. 4), Pref. p. xx. Are the hearts of these leeches softened by the possession of such scandalous monopoly?
1842. Tennyson, Will. Waterproof, xxv. Ere days, that deal in ana, swarm’d His literary leeches.
1883. J. Parker, Tyne Ch., 86. It’s a sticking leech you have laid on me this time, and a famous biter.
2. attrib. and Comb., as leech-bite, -bleeder, -breeder, -dealer, -family, -gatherer, -tribe; leech-like adv.; leech-eater, a name for the Spur-winged Plover (Holopterus spinosus) and the Crocodile-bird (Pluvianus ægyptius); leech-extract, an extract prepared from leeches, used in physiological experiments for intravenous or intraperitoneal injections; leech-gaiter, a kind of gaiter worn in Ceylon as a protection against land-leeches; leech-glass Surg., a glass tube to hold a leech which it is required to apply to a particular spot; † leech-worm = 1.
1882. De Windt, Equator, 57. We … reached the bungalow … none the worse, with the exception of *leech-bites and cut feet.
1851. in Illustr. Lond. News, 5 Aug. (1854), 119. *Leech-bleeder, *leech-breeder.
1839. Penny Cycl., XIII. 383/2. The *leech-dealers of Bretagne.
1885. Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888), IV. 100. The so-called spur-winged plover (Hoplopterus spinosus) … claims the distinction of being the *‘leech-eater’ or ‘trochilos’ of Herodotus.
1898. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 420. Organic substances such as fibrin ferment, hemi-albumose, peptones, nuclein, and *leech extract … have the effect on injection, of bringing about a marked and rapid diminution in the number of leucocytes.
1839. Penny Cycl., XIII. 383/1. Cuvier thinks it doubtful whether the species of this genus [Clepsina] should be arranged with the *leech family.
1859. Tennent, Ceylon, I. 303. The coffee planters, who live among these pests, are obliged … to envelope their legs in *‘leech gaiters’ made of closely woven cloth.
1802. Wordsw., Resolut. & Indep., xx. I’ll think of the *leech-gatherer on the lonely moor.
1839. Penny Cycl., XIII. 384/1. It is difficult to make them fix themselves on the particular spot wished; but a *leech-glass will generally effect this.
1682. Dryden, Medal, 149. The Witnesses, that, *Leech-like, liv’d on bloud.
1819. Shelley, Eng. in 1819, 5. Rulers who neither see nor feel nor know, But leech-like to their fainting country cling, Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow.
1835–6. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 170/2. There is observed in the *leech-tribe something analogous to the lesser circulation.
1794. Sporting Mag., IV. 271. Observations on the *Leech worm, by a Gentleman who kept one several Years for the purpose of a Weather-glass.
