medicinal leech

noun

: a large European freshwater leech (Hirudo medicinalis) that is a source of hirudin, is sometimes used to drain blood (as from newly grafted tissue), and was formerly used to bleed patients thought to have excess blood

Examples of medicinal leech in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The average patient today, confronted with the prospect of using a medicinal leech, or Hirudo medicinalis, a faceless aquatic invertebrate with a lust for blood, might feel some queasiness, if not outright repulsion. —Zoey Poll, New York Times, 16 Feb. 2024

The team also formed electrodes around the nervous tissue of medicinal leeches. —Tim Newcomb, Popular Mechanics, 21 Apr. 2023

There’s even medicinal leech therapy, which was approved by the FDA in 2004. —Elycia Rubin, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 June 2023

This has already worked in both zebrafish and medicinal leeches. —Tim Newcomb, Popular Mechanics, 21 Apr. 2023

The medicinal leech, Hirudo medicinalis, is a parasitic invertebrate that relies on the blood of animals to survive, typically feeding on fish, snails, turtles, and the occasional human that tracks into its freshwater habitat. —Rebecca Kreston, Discover Magazine, 30 Oct. 2016

Bacterial symbioses of the medicinal leech Hirudo verbana. —Rebecca Kreston, Discover Magazine, 30 Oct. 2016

Word History

First Known Use

1804, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

medicinal leech

noun

: a large European freshwater leech of the genus Hirudo (H. medicinalis) that is a source of hirudin, is now sometimes used to drain blood (as from a hematoma), and was formerly used to bleed patients thought to have excess blood