live bloodn.
/ˈlʌɪv blʌd/, U.S. /ˈlaɪv ˈbləd/ 1. The blood of a living person or animal. Also: blood drawn directly from a person or animal when living or immediately after death, esp. while it remains unclotted or contains living cells. Cf. lifeblood n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > vascular system > blood > types of blood > [noun] > life-blood
heart-blood?c1225
lifeblood1579
life's wet1598
live blood1625
1625 T. Middleton Game at Chæss sig. e4 v Oh you'ue drawn-blood, liue blood, blood of honor From your most deare primitiue mothers heart.
1653 W. Harvey Anat. Exercitations lii. 292 And into this Serum almost all the blood degenerates. Now these parts are not in the live blood, but onely when it is now corrupted and dissolved by death.
1730 T. Fuller Exanthematologia 51 I have seen Countrymen, at the Death of a Buck, drink a good large Draught of his warm, and, as yet, live Blood, for the Cure of a Jaundice.
1771 Med. Ess. & Observ. (ed. 5) II. 86 The serum..reduced to the heat of live blood.
1830 R. Emmons Fredoniad (ed. 2) II. 257 The live blood leaping from the arteries flew.
1870 G. W. Wigner U. S. Patent 108,664 1/1 It is most important to use perfectly fresh blood—i.e., blood which is drawn directly from a healthy animal as it is being slaughtered, and which is prevented from coagulating by being immediately mixed with clay, as blood so used retains for a considerable time the properties which fit it for use as a purifying agent. It may therefore be termed ‘live blood’.
1876 Lancet 18 Nov. 734/1 His heroic bravery in allowing twenty-five ounces of his own live blood to be taken from him at the risk of his own life to save the life of a fellow-creature.
1948 S. Drinker Music & Women ii. 36 Butchers are also ‘unclean’, because they handle live blood.
2004 D. Williams Everyday Heaven 152 The live blood, which was meant to be able to flow about, sat glugged together, tightly compressed.
2. Slight involuntary twitching of a muscle, esp. of the eyelids; myokymia. Cf. earlier lifeblood n. 3.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > diseases of tissue > disorders affecting muscles > [noun] > spasm or cramp > type of spasm > tic or twitch
spasm1477
vellication1665
subsultus1696
tic douloureux1800
tic1822
jerking1827
live blood1834
nervous tic1858
jactitation1861
habit spasm1888
myokymia1901
fasciculation1938
1834 London Med. Gaz. 13 280/2 She had for several months been affected with twitchings in her cheeks, and ‘live blood’ was often very troublesome in her left eye.
1850 J. Leighton Christmas comes but Once Year 93 Poor John..is very uncomfortable, indeed; experiencing the combined sensations of goose-skin, pins-and-needles, live-blood, and intoxication.
1902 Australasian Med. Gaz. 21 410/1 The patient knew that when she felt ‘live blood’ in the face that she must get help and lie down.
1968 J. M. Heaton Eye iii. ix. 197 It [sc. myokymia] is popularly known as ‘live blood’. It may be brought on by fatigue or nervous debility.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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