Blood (blŭd), n. [OE. blod,
blood, AS. blōd; akin to D. bloed, OHG.
bluot, G. blut, Goth. blōþ, Icel.
blōð, Sw. & Dan. blod; prob. fr. the same root as
E. blow to bloom. See Blow to bloom.] 1.
The fluid which circulates in the principal vascular system of
animals, carrying nourishment to all parts of the body, and bringing away
waste products to be excreted. See under Arterial.
☞ The blood consists of a liquid, the plasma, containing minute
particles, the blood corpuscles. In the invertebrate animals it is usually
nearly colorless, and contains only one kind of corpuscles; but in all
vertebrates, except Amphioxus, it contains some colorless corpuscles, with
many more which are red and give the blood its uniformly red color. See
Corpuscle, Plasma.
2. Relationship by descent from a common ancestor;
consanguinity; kinship.
To share the blood of Saxon royalty.
Sir W. Scott.
A friend of our own blood.
Waller.
Half blood (Law), relationship through only
one parent. -- Whole blood, relationship through
both father and mother. In American Law, blood includes both half
blood, and whole blood. Bouvier. Peters.
3. Descent; lineage; especially, honorable birth;
the highest royal lineage.
Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam.
Shak.
I am a gentleman of blood and breeding.
Shak.
4. (Stock Breeding) Descent from parents of
recognized breed; excellence or purity of breed.
☞ In stock breeding half blood is descent showing one half
only of pure breed. Blue blood, full blood, or warm
blood, is the same as blood.
5. The fleshy nature of man.
Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood.
Shak.
6. The shedding of blood; the taking of life,
murder; manslaughter; destruction.
So wills the fierce, avenging sprite,
Till blood for blood atones.
Hood.
7. A bloodthirsty or murderous disposition.
[R.]
He was a thing of blood, whose every motion
Was timed with dying cries.
Shak.
8. Temper of mind; disposition; state of the
passions; -- as if the blood were the seat of emotions.
When you perceive his blood inclined to mirth.
Shak.
☞ Often, in this sense, accompanied with bad, cold,
warm, or other qualifying word. Thus, to commit an act in cold
blood, is to do it deliberately, and without sudden passion; to do it
in bad blood, is to do it in anger. Warm blood denotes a
temper inflamed or irritated. To warm or heat the blood is to
excite the passions. Qualified by up, excited feeling or passion is
signified; as, my blood was up.
9. A man of fire or spirit; a fiery spark; a gay,
showy man; a rake.
Seest thou not . . . how giddily 'a turns about all the hot
bloods between fourteen and five and thirty?
Shak.
It was the morning costume of a dandy or blood.
Thackeray.
10. The juice of anything, especially if
red.
He washed . . . his clothes in the blood of
grapes.
Gen. xiix. 11.
☞ Blood is often used as an adjective, and as the first part
of self-explaining compound words; as, blood-bespotted, blood-
bought, blood-curdling, blood-dyed, blood-red,
blood-spilling, blood-stained, blood-warm, blood-
won.
Blood baptism (Eccl. Hist.), the martyrdom
of those who had not been baptized. They were considered as baptized in
blood, and this was regarded as a full substitute for literal baptism.
-- Blood blister, a blister or bleb containing blood
or bloody serum, usually caused by an injury. -- Blood
brother, brother by blood or birth. -- Blood
clam (Zoöl.), a bivalve mollusk of the genus Arca
and allied genera, esp. Argina pexata of the American coast. So
named from the color of its flesh. -- Blood
corpuscle. See Corpuscle. -- Blood
crystal (Physiol.), one of the crystals formed by the
separation in a crystalline form of the hæmoglobin of the red blood
corpuscles; hæmatocrystallin. All blood does not yield blood
crystals. -- Blood heat, heat equal to the
temperature of human blood, or about 98½ ° Fahr. --
Blood horse, a horse whose blood or lineage is
derived from the purest and most highly prized origin or stock. --
Blood money. See in the Vocabulary. --
Blood orange, an orange with dark red pulp. --
Blood poisoning (Med.), a morbid state of the
blood caused by the introduction of poisonous or infective matters from
without, or the absorption or retention of such as are produced in the body
itself; toxæmia. -- Blood pudding, a
pudding made of blood and other materials. -- Blood
relation, one connected by blood or descent. --
Blood spavin. See under Spavin. --
Blood vessel. See in the Vocabulary. --
Blue blood, the blood of noble or aristocratic
families, which, according to a Spanish prover , has in it a tinge of blue;
-- hence, a member of an old and aristocratic family. -- Flesh
and blood. (a) A blood relation, esp. a
child. (b) Human nature. -- In
blood (Hunting), in a state of perfect health and
vigor. Shak. -- To let blood. See under
Let. -- Prince of the blood, the son of a
sovereign, or the issue of a royal family. The sons, brothers, and uncles
of the sovereign are styled princes of the blood royal; and the
daughters, sisters, and aunts are princesses of the blood
royal.