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Definition of "bloodsucker" [blood•suck•er]

  • An animal, such as a leech, that sucks blood. (noun)
  • An extortionist or a blackmailer. (noun)
  • A person who is intrusively or overly dependent upon another; a parasite. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "bloodsucker" in a sentence
  • "Another pest is a small midge, or sand-fly, which causes intolerable itching, and subsequent irritation, and is in this respect the most insufferable torment in Sikkim; the minutest rent in one's clothes is detected by the acute senses of this insatiable bloodsucker, which is itself so small as to be barely visible without a microscope."
  • "The head of the Chamber of Commerce-the nation's largest business trade association, with an annual budget of $258 million-doesn't mind being called a bloodsucker or inspiring howls of protest."
  • "I wonder what kind of bloodsucker would want to make me itch."