|Origin:||bledan, from blod; BLOOD| bleed past tense and past
participle bled to lose blood, especially because of an injury:
Your nose is bleeding. Tragically, she bled to death. bleed
profusely/heavily (=bleed a lot) Mrs Burke was found unconscious
and bleeding profusely. to take some blood from someone's body,
done in the past in order to treat a disease: When he fell sick
several days later, he had a doctor bleed him. to force someone
to pay an unreasonable amount of money over a period of time:
His ex-wife clearly intends to bleed him for every last penny.
bleed somebody dry/white (=take all their money, possessions
etc) The ten-year war has bled the country dry. to remove air or
liquid from a system in order to make it work properly, for
example from a heating system: We need to bleed the radiators.
to spread from one area of cloth or paper to another [= run]:
Wash it in cold water so the colours don't bleed. if a company
or business bleeds red ink, it loses a lot of money rather than
making money: Anal