blood1
/blʌd
/- Pressure is needed to pump the life giving, oxygen carrying blood around your body.
- Obviously, an artery carries more blood than does a vein or capillary.
- The red blood cells circulate in the blood and carry the oxygen from the lungs to the various cells in the body.
Synonyms
- It has a heart, a few blood vessels, and insect blood simply flows around inside the body cavity.
- A giant squid's blood cannot carry oxygen well in warm water, so if it is forced to the surface, it will suffocate.
- I drew some bloods to rule out kidney failure and cancer of the prostate and referred him to a urologist.
- The ship's doctor can presumably take blood, and, though possibly not having a haematology laboratory on board, may be able to get the bloods tested when the ship docks.
- She would have a history and physical, routine bloods drawn, and a flu shot, in season.
Blood consists of a mildly alkaline aqueous fluid (plasma) containing red cells (erythrocytes), white cells (leucocytes), and platelets; it is red when oxygenated and purple when deoxygenated. Red blood cells carry the protein haemoglobin, which gives blood its colour and can combine with oxygen, thus enabling the blood to carry oxygen from the lungs to the tissues. White blood cells protect the body against the invasion of foreign agents (e.g. bacteria). Platelets and other factors present in plasma are concerned in the clotting of blood, preventing haemorrhage. In medieval science and medicine, blood was regarded as one of the four bodily humours, believed to be associated with a confident and optimistic temperament.
- I cannot just brush off scenes of violence, blood and gore, not to mention senseless killing.
- The tragedy of the last few years of blood and violence has shown no signs of a peaceful ending.
- The people of the mob cheered as they made their way out of the palace, that was now soiled in blood and violence.
- Mainly red, because you can get so passionate about it your blood gets up.
- My blood boiled, fiery brown eyes shooting daggers at my pimply-faced enemy.
- Mara and the president went at it hammer and tongs, beating out offer and counteroffer as blood boiled and tempers rose.
- Experts believe that his father's position helped him to ascend the throne, since there was no royal blood in his family.
- And although his parents were from Jamaica, James says he has Chinese blood in his family.
- None but those of German blood may be members of the nation.
Synonyms
- The bond between homeboys is stronger than that between other brothers or bloods (other blacks) who have had no relationship prior to imprisonment.
- This is what happens when men with too much money, education and nose hair try acting like working-class Loaded young bloods.
- To the fiercely rhythmic sound of drums and whistles, the young bloods of the village lined up in a column three-deep.
- It's actually the Spanish bloods who occupy the society pages and the top two percent of the social register.
- I get sick of hearing that because several young players were blooded last year, this must bode well for the comeback.
- In doing so, they've blooded players of a newer generation, yet many of the old hands were most central to last Sunday's win.
- They blooded some new players and over the season they provided some wonderful entertainment and brilliant football.
- No more thundering hooves, no more yelps and no more blooding the junior hunt foreheads.
- Leaving aside the debatable claim that a child may be traumatised by being blooded, hunting harms no-one.
- It was not an uncommon thing to blood hounds, and with regard to the question of cruelty, if they argued from elemental principles, all sport was cruel.
- Hunters deny that cub-hunting is about blooding of hounds.
Phrases
be like getting blood out of (or from) a stone (also turnip)
blood and guts
blood and thunder
blood is thicker than water
one's blood is up
blood, sweat, and tears
blood will tell
first blood
give blood
have blood on one's hands
in one's blood
make someone's blood boil
make someone's blood run cold
new (or fresh) blood
of the blood (royal)
out for (someone's) blood
someone's blood is worth bottling
taste blood
young blood
Origin
Old English blōd, of Germanic origin; related to German Blut and Dutch bloed.
Something so vital to life is bound to play a large part in the language. Blood represents violence, genetic inheritance, and, in blood, sweat, and tears, hard work and sacrifice; in 1940 Winston Churchill announced to Parliament that he had ‘nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat’. Nowadays bloody is a relatively mild swear word, but it used to be virtually unprintable. In the 19th century, and well into the 20th, it was on a par with obscene language and caused deep offence. Its use by George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) in Pygmalion (1913), where Eliza Doolittle says, ‘Walk! Not bloody likely’, caused a sensation, and indeed the play's stage directions mark the word ‘Sensation’ after the line in question. This reaction probably arose because people thought the word contained a blasphemous reference to the blood of Christ, or was a corruption of by Our Lady. In fact the most likely origin lies in the aristocratic rowdies, or ‘bloods’, of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Most of the earliest examples, in the second half of the 17th century, involve someone being ‘bloody drunk’, which probably simply meant ‘as drunk as a blood’.
Rhymes
Blood2
/blʌd/- Mrs and Mrs Ted Colson lived south-west of Charlotte Waters on Bloods Creek Station.
- The decision to drop the more serious charges was obviously not popular with some members of the Blood community.