bloodsucker

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an animal, especially a leech or biting insect, that feeds by sucking blood

   The leech is a bloodsucker that attaches itself firmly to its host.

2. 2
   noun

   figurative and disapproving: a person who persistently exploits or takes from others

   The landlord was denounced as a bloodsucker who profited from desperate tenants.

A compound of blood + sucker. It first describes an animal that draws blood by suction or piercing. The figurative use compares an exploitative person to a parasite draining a host, an image that also made bloodsucker a conventional name for a vampire.

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images