BLOODLETTING

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

Meaning:

Indiscriminate slaughter

Example:

a huge prison battue was ordered

Synonyms:

battue; bloodbath; bloodletting; bloodshed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("bloodletting" is a kind of...):

butchery; carnage; mass murder; massacre; slaughter (the savage and excessive killing of many people)

Meaning:

Formerly used as a treatment to reduce excess blood (one of the four humors of medieval medicine)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("bloodletting" is a kind of...):

medical aid; medical care (professional treatment for illness or injury)

Domain category:

medical specialty; medicine (the branches of medical science that deal with nonsurgical techniques)

Dark Ages; Middle Ages (the period of history between classical antiquity and the Italian Renaissance)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bloodletting"):

phlebotomy; venesection (surgical incision into a vein; used to treat hemochromatosis)

cupping (a treatment in which evacuated cups are applied to the skin to draw blood through the surface)