Definition

1. Noun:

   • The red liquid in the body: The fluid, typically red in vertebrates, that circulates through the heart, arteries, and veins, carrying oxygen and nutrients to and waste materials away from body tissues.
   • Lineage or ancestry: The members of a family or group considered in terms of their shared descent or kinship.
   • Temperament or disposition: A person's state of mind or temperament, often implying passion or spirit.
   • People viewed as a group: People, especially when considered as a resource or new members of an organization.
   • A dissolute man: (Archaic) A fashionable, dissolute man.

2. Verb:

   • To stain with blood: To smear or stain with blood, as in a ritual.
   • To give a first taste of blood: To initiate, especially in hunting, by exposing to the sight or taste of blood.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The doctor took a sample of my blood for testing.
  • They are related by blood, not just by marriage.
  • He argued with hot blood.
  • The company needs new blood to bring fresh ideas.
• Verb:
  • The hunter blooded the novice by smearing the kill's blood on his face.

Advanced Usage

• "In cold blood": Deliberately and without emotion; cruelly.
  • The crime was committed in cold blood.
• "To make one's blood boil": To make someone extremely angry.
  • His arrogance makes my blood boil.
• "To have blood on one's hands": To be responsible for someone's death or suffering.
  • The dictator has blood on his hands.
• "Blood is thicker than water": (Proverb) Family relationships are the strongest and most important bonds.

Variants and Related Words

• Bloody (adj): Covered with or containing blood; (verb, chiefly British) to stain with blood.
• Bloodless (adj): Without blood; without violence or killing.
• Bloodline (n): A direct line of descent; ancestry.
• Bloodshed (n): The killing or wounding of people, typically in a violent context.

Synonyms

• Noun (fluid): Gore, lifeblood.
• Noun (lineage): Ancestry, descent, lineage, stock.
• Noun (temperament): Spirit, temper, passion.

Related Phrasal Verbs / Phrases

• Blood up: To become or make someone angry or excited.
  • The insult got his blood up.
• To blood someone in: To initiate someone into an activity, especially a violent one.

Related Idioms

• "Bad blood": Feelings of hatred or bitterness between people.
  • There has been bad blood between the two families for years.
• "To run in the blood": To be a common characteristic in a family.
  • Musical talent runs in their blood.
• "To sweat blood": To work extremely hard or be very anxious.
  • I sweated blood to finish that project on time.

Verb

1. smear with blood, as in a hunting initiation rite, where the face of a person is smeared with the blood of the kill

Noun

1. people viewed as members of a group
   • we need more young blood in this organization
2. the descendants of one individual
   • his entire lineage has been warriors
3. a dissolute man in fashionable society
4. temperament or disposition
   • a person of hot blood
5. the fluid (red in vertebrates) that is pumped through the body by the heart and contains plasma, blood cells, and platelets
   • blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the tissues and carries away waste products
   • the ancients believed that blood was the seat of the emotions