subs. (colloquial).—1. An extortioner; a miser.
2. (venery).—Anything insatiable. Also a whore.
1597. JOSEPH HALL, Satires, iv., 5. An HORSE-LEECH, barren wench, or gaping grave.
1614. JONSON, Bartholomew Fair, ii., 1. You are one of those HORSE-LEECHES that gave out I was dead in Turnbull Street.
3. (old).—A horse-doctor; also a quack.
1594. NASHE, The Terrors of the Night (GROSART, iii., 250). Whereas his HORSE-LEECH … will give a man twenty guineas in one.
1597. JOSEPH HALL, Satires, ii., 4. No HORSE-LEECH but will look for larger fee.
