[f. BLEED + -ING1.]
1. The flowing or dropping of blood (from a wound, etc.); hæmorrhage.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 849. Thou shalt feele as well the blood of me As thou hast felt the bleeding of Tisbe.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. cxxxvi. (1495), 693. Powder of drye roses staunchyth bledynge at the nose.
1617. Hieron, Wks., II. 309. Bleeding of the person slaine, at the presence of the murtherer.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth (1860), Pref. 15. He … applied some lint to stop the bleeding.
b. Of plants: The emission of sap (from a wound). Also attrib., as in bleeding-season.
1674. Grew, Anat. Trunks, II. i. § 8. The Bleeding of Plants … properly enough expresses, The eruption of the Sap out of any Vessels.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 161. The Bleeding of the Vine.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 677. The phenomenon known as the ‘bleeding’ of wood cut in the winter.
2. Drawing or ‘letting’ of blood. Also attrib.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 38. Bledynge, sanguinacio, fleobotomia. Ibid., 39. Bledynge yryn, fleobotomium.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg., M j. What is bledyng or blode lettynge.
1670. Cotton, Espernon, III. XII. 647. His Physician resolu’d upon a Bleeding.
c. 1783. W. Stark in Med. Commun., I. 383. Bleeding is the appropriated remedy for a cough.
1837. Hogg, Ettr. Shep. Tales, III. 35. The butcher came up with his bleeding-knife.
fig. 1796. Southey, Lett. Spain & Port., 427. This bleeding is more dreadful, because the Holy Office is the bleeder.
1850. Alison, Hist. Europe, II. viii. § 54. In the language of the times … a new bleeding was required for the state.
