One of the flexible tubes (veins or arteries) in the bodies of animals which convey the blood throughout the system.
1694. Salmon, Iatrica, I. v. 244/2. Some of the Blood-vessels, chiefly the Arteries … must be broken.
1718. J. Chamberlayne, Relig. Philos. (1830), I. iv. § 3. A Tunicle full of Blood-Vessels; that is of Veins and Arteries.
1836. Dickens, Sk. Boz, v. 19/1. She burst a bloodvessel one mornin’, and died.
