Bloodletting

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Bloodletting \Blood"let`ting\, n. (Med.)
     The act or process of letting blood or bleeding, as by
     opening a vein or artery, or by cupping or leeches; -- esp.
     applied to venesection.
     [1913 Webster]



From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  bloodletting
       n 1: formerly used as a treatment to reduce excess blood (one of
            the four humors of medieval medicine)
       2: indiscriminate slaughter [syn: {bloodbath}, {bloodshed}, {battue}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  48 Moby Thesaurus words for "bloodletting":
     aspiration, bane, bleeding, blood, bloodshed, braining, broaching,
     cupping, dealing death, destruction, destruction of life, dispatch,
     drafting, drainage, draining, drawing, emptying, euthanasia,
     execution, extermination, flow of blood, gore, immolation, kill,
     killing, lapidation, leeching, martyrdom, martyrization,
     mercy killing, milking, phlebotomy, pipetting, poisoning, pumping,
     ritual killing, ritual murder, sacrifice, shooting, siphoning,
     slaughter, slaying, stoning, sucking, suction, taking of life,
     tapping, venesection