Definition of "leech" []

• Any of various chiefly aquatic bloodsucking or carnivorous annelid worms of the class Hirudinea, of which one species (Hirudo medicinalis) was formerly used by physicians to bleed patients and is now sometimes used as a temporary aid to circulation during surgical reattachment of a body part. (noun)
• One that preys on or clings to another; a parasite. (noun)
• Archaic A physician. (noun)
• To bleed with leeches. (verb-transitive)
• To drain the essence or exhaust the resources of. (verb-transitive)

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.

• "And Dick Cheney, you fuckin leech, tell them your plans"
• "New research sponsored by the National Science Foundation shows that the well-known medicinal leech is actually comprised up at least 3 different species."
• "I knew Michael Kelly, who was the first journalist to die in Iraq, and I can tell you he was NOT a "leech" -- and I can assure he was not doing it for his personal enrichment."