Dictionary

bloodsucker en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈblʌdˌsʌkɚ/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From blood + sucker. The “changeable lizard” sense is perhaps because of the reddish color of its neck.

Meanings

1. An animal or insect that drinks the blood of others, especially by sucking blood through a puncture wound; a leech, mosquito etc.
   • You're a bloodsucker, so you eat blood. Just blood. 2023, translated in 2025, Berta Páramo and translated by Marc Correa Haro, Lice: How to Survive on Humans, page 79:
   • I once saw a boy who waded beyond the gravel walk out of the water with bloodsuckers fringing his ankles like leaves. 1975, Larry Woiwode, Beyond the Bedroom Wall, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, page 145:
2. Someone who sheds blood; a bloodthirsty person; a violent criminal.
3. (derogatory, figuratively) Someone who preys on others, or who attempts to take as much from others as possible; an extortioner; a leech.
4. A supernatural being who feeds on (especially human) blood; a vampire.
   • Meyer, in turn, offered a chaste variation on the promiscuous bloodsuckers of Anne Rice. And back in Rice’s heyday of the 1980s and ’90s, mass market copies of her “Interview With the Vampire” occupied the same spinning racks as other critically slammed authors of the ’70s and ’80s: Danielle Steel, Sidney Sheldon, Judith Krantz, Jackie Collins. 2023 July 6, Pamela Paul, “What’s the Story With Colleen Hoover?”, in The New York Times:
5. Any of various lizards of the family Agamidae, especially the changeable lizard (Calotes versicolor) of Asia, and the jacky dragon of Australia, Amphibolurus muricatus).

Forms

Deriveds

bloodsuckery

Relateds

bloodsucking

Synonyms

gadfly

Translations (74)

et vereimeja (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · bg кръвопи́ец (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · uk кровопи́вець (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · ru кровосо́с (animal that drinks the blood of others) · es chupasangre (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · fr suceur de sang (animal that drinks the blood of others) · bg кръвопи́ец (animal that drinks the blood of others) · pt sanguessuga (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · ky эзүүчү (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · cmn 吸血動物 /吸血动物 (animal that drinks the blood of others) · cs pijavice (animal that drinks the blood of others) · ko 흡혈동물 (animal that drinks the blood of others) · nl bloeddrinker (animal that drinks the blood of others) · de Blutsaugerin (animal that drinks the blood of others) · sv blodsugare (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · bg кръвопи́йка (animal that drinks the blood of others) · nl vampier (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · ja 吸血動物 (animal that drinks the blood of others) · pt chupista (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · myv верень симиця (animal that drinks the blood of others) · sv blodsugare (animal that drinks the blood of others) · es chupóptero (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · fi verenimijä (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · ky кан соргуч (animal that drinks the blood of others) · pl krwiopijca (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · gl samesuga (animal that drinks the blood of others) · ru кровопи́йца (animal that drinks the blood of others) · ky кан ичер (animal that drinks the blood of others) · sw mnyonya-damu (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · bg кръвопи́йка (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · de Blutsauger (animal that drinks the blood of others) · cop ⲟⲩⲁⲙⲥⲛⲟϥ (animal that drinks the blood of others) · uk кровосо́с (animal that drinks the blood of others) · nb blodsuger (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · de Blutsaugerin (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · cs vydřiduch (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · pt chulo (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · fr sangsue (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · cmn 吸血者 (animal that drinks the blood of others) · nl bloeddrinker (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · fi verenimijä (animal that drinks the blood of others) · uk кровопи́вця (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · cmn 吸血鬼 (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · pl krwiopijczyni (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · sh krvòpija (animal that drinks the blood of others) · mn цус сорогч (animal that drinks the blood of others) · gl sanguesuga (animal that drinks the blood of others) · ru кровопи́йца (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · nl bloedzuiger (animal that drinks the blood of others) · cs pijavka (animal that drinks the blood of others) · uk кровопи́вець (animal that drinks the blood of others) · la sanguī̆sūga (animal that drinks the blood of others) · bg къ́рлеж (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · ru эксплуата́тор (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · be крывапі́вец (animal that drinks the blood of others) · pt parasita (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · be крывасмо́к (animal that drinks the blood of others) · da blodsuger (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · sv utsugare (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · nb blodsuger (animal that drinks the blood of others) · sh крво̀пија (animal that drinks the blood of others) · pt sugador/chupador de sangue (animal that drinks the blood of others) · es sanguijuela (animal that drinks the blood of others) · be крывапі́вец (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · et vereimeja (animal that drinks the blood of others) · cs vyděrač (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · ga súmaire (fola) (animal that drinks the blood of others) · fr suceuse de sang (animal that drinks the blood of others) · ru вымога́тель (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · pl krwiopijca (animal that drinks the blood of others) · es sanguijuela (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · de Blutsauger (one who attempts to take as much from others as possible) · uk кровосмо́к (animal that drinks the blood of others) · da blodsuger (animal that drinks the blood of others)