BLOOD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does blood mean? 

• BLOOD (noun)
  The noun BLOOD has 5 senses:

1. the fluid (red in vertebrates) that is pumped through the body by the heart and contains plasma, blood cells, and platelets

2. temperament or disposition

3. a dissolute man in fashionable society

4. the descendants of one individual

5. people viewed as members of a group

  Familiarity information: BLOOD used as a noun is common.

• BLOOD (verb)
  The verb BLOOD has 1 sense:

1. smear with blood, as in a hunting initiation rite, where the face of a person is smeared with the blood of the kill

  Familiarity information: BLOOD used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BLOOD (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The fluid (red in vertebrates) that is pumped through the body by the heart and contains plasma, blood cells, and platelets

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Context example:

the ancients believed that blood was the seat of the emotions

Hypernyms ("blood" is a kind of...):

bodily fluid; body fluid; humor; humour; liquid body substance (the liquid parts of the body)

Meronyms (parts of "blood"):

blood cell; blood corpuscle; corpuscle (either of two types of cells (erythrocytes and leukocytes) and sometimes including platelets)

Meronyms (substance of "blood"):

blood serum; serum (an amber, watery fluid, rich in proteins, that separates out when blood coagulates)

Domain category:

craniate; vertebrate (animals having a bony or cartilaginous skeleton with a segmented spinal column and a large brain enclosed in a skull or cranium)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "blood"):

arterial blood (blood found in arteries)

blood group; blood type (human blood cells (usually just the red blood cells) that have the same antigens)

gore (coagulated blood from a wound)

lifeblood (the blood considered as the seat of vitality)

blood stream; bloodstream (the blood flowing through the circulatory system)

blood clot; grume (a semisolid mass of coagulated red and white blood cells)

cord blood (blood obtained from the umbilical cord at birth)

menorrhea; menstrual blood; menstrual flow (flow of blood from the uterus; occurs at roughly monthly intervals during a woman's reproductive years)

venous blood (blood found in the veins)

whole blood (blood that has not been modified except for the addition of an anticoagulant)

Derivation:

blood (smear with blood, as in a hunting initiation rite, where the face of a person is smeared with the blood of the kill)

bloody (having or covered with or accompanied by blood)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Temperament or disposition

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

a person of hot blood

Hypernyms ("blood" is a kind of...):

disposition; temperament (your usual mood)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A dissolute man in fashionable society

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

blood; profligate; rake; rakehell; rip; roue

Hypernyms ("blood" is a kind of...):

debauchee; libertine; rounder (a dissolute person; usually a man who is morally unrestrained)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The descendants of one individual

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

ancestry; blood; blood line; bloodline; descent; line; line of descent; lineage; origin; parentage; pedigree; stemma; stock

Context example:

his entire lineage has been warriors

Hypernyms ("blood" is a kind of...):

family tree; genealogy (successive generations of kin)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "blood"):

family; family line; folk; kinfolk; kinsfolk; phratry; sept (people descended from a common ancestor)

side (a family line of descent)

Sense 5

Meaning:

People viewed as members of a group

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

we need more young blood in this organization

Hypernyms ("blood" is a kind of...):

people ((plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively)

• BLOOD (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they blood    ... he / she / it bloods   
Past simple: blooded   
Past participle: blooded   
-ing form: blooding   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Smear with blood, as in a hunting initiation rite, where the face of a person is smeared with the blood of the kill

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "blood" is one way to...):

daub; smear (cover (a surface) by smearing (a substance) over it)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

blood (the fluid (red in vertebrates) that is pumped through the body by the heart and contains plasma, blood cells, and platelets)

 Context examples 

“And now, Master Billy Bones, if that be your name, we'll have a look at the colour of your blood. Jim,” he said, “are you afraid of blood?”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He felt the blood crawl in his veins, but controlled himself and closed the door softly behind him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A criminal strain ran in his blood, which, instead of being modified, was increased and rendered infinitely more dangerous by his extraordinary mental powers.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Even now my blood boils at the recollection of this injustice.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I had a blood test one time that seemed weird to my doctor and me—and not in a good way.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

On examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of the bedroom.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I put him back, conscious at his touch of a certain icy pang along my blood.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The altered genes that cause each type can be detected with a blood test.

(MEN syndrome, NCI Dictionary)

She could not shake off the legacy of her race, the law that was of her blood and that had been trained into her.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

From under the sink he drew a zinc pail which contained a quantity of blood.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)