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verb Leach v. t. (past & past part. leached; pres. part. leaching) 1.To remove the soluble constituents from by subjecting to the action of percolating water or other liquid; as, to leach ashes or coffee. 2.To dissolve out; often used with out; as, to leach out alkali from ashes.
Leach v. i. To part with soluble constituents by percolation.
noun Leach n. (Naut.) See 3d Leech.
Leach n. (Written also letch) 1.A quantity of wood ashes, through which water passes, and thus imbibes the alkali. 2.A tub or vat for leaching ashes, bark, etc. Leach tub, a wooden tub in which ashes are leached.
Leach n. See Leech, a physician. (Obs.)
Leech n. (Written also leach) (Naut.) The border or edge at the side of a sail. Leech line, a line attached to the leech ropes of sails, passing up through blocks on the yards, to haul the leeches by. Leech rope, that part of the boltrope to which the side of a sail is sewed.
Leech n. 1.A physician or surgeon; a professor of the art of healing. (Written also leach) (Archaic) "Leech, heal thyself." 2.(Zool.) Any one of numerous genera and species of annulose worms, belonging to the order Hirudinea, or Bdelloidea, esp. those species used in medicine, as Hirudo medicinalis of Europe, and allied species. Note: In the mouth of bloodsucking leeches are three convergent, serrated jaws, moved by strong muscles. By the motion of these jaws a stellate incision is made in the skin, through which the leech sucks blood till it is gorged, and then drops off. The stomach has large pouches on each side to hold the blood. The common large bloodsucking leech of America (Macrobdella decora) is dark olive above, and red below, with black spots. Many kinds of leeches are parasitic on fishes; others feed upon worms and mollusks, and have no jaws for drawing blood. See Bdelloidea. Hirudinea, and Clepsine. 3.(Surg.) A glass tube of peculiar construction, adapted for drawing blood from a scarified part by means of a vacuum. Horse leech, a less powerful European leech (Haemopis vorax), commonly attacking the membrane that lines the inside of the mouth and nostrils of animals that drink at pools where it lives.
Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48
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