Fleam
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A sharp instrument used to open a vein, to lance gums, or the like.
"1831-1850, William Youatt, On the Structure and the Diseases of the Horse A bloodstick - a piece of hard wood loaded at one end with lead — is used to strike the fleam into the vein"
- 2 The watercourse or runoff from a mill; millstream Northern-England, UK, dialectal
- 3 A large trench or gully cut into a meadow in order to drain it Northern-England, UK, dialectal
Example
More examples"1831-1850, William Youatt, On the Structure and the Diseases of the Horse A bloodstick - a piece of hard wood loaded at one end with lead — is used to strike the fleam into the vein"
Etymology
From Middle English fleme, fleom, from Old French flieme, flemie (“open vein”), probably via a Proto-Germanic source (compare Old Saxon flēma, Old High German fliotuma, fliodema, Old English flȳtme (“fleam, lancet”)), borrowed from Vulgar Latin fletoma, *fletomus, from Late Latin flebotomus, phlebotomus, from Ancient Greek φλεβοτόμον (phlebotómon). Compare French flamme, Dutch vlijm, German Fliete, Danish flitte (“fleam”). Doublet of phlebotome.
From Middle English fleem, flem (“the rushing of water; current”), probably from Old English flēam (“fleeing; flight; rush”), from Proto-Germanic *flaumaz (“stream; current; flood”), from Proto-Indo-European *plew- (“to fly; flow; run”). Cognate with Norwegian Nynorsk flaum (“flood”).
Related phrases
More for "fleam"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.