bleed, v.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bleed v.¹

[SE bleed dry]

1. to extort money from.

1674		C. Cotton Compleat Gamester 134: When they intend to bleed a Col to some purpose [...] they always fix half a score Packs of Cards before [...] by flicking them or spurring them.
1768		Foote Devil Upon Two Sticks in Works (1799) II 258: Bleeding the purse is [...] effectual for lowering the spirit.
1797		‘T.B. Junr.’ Pettyfogger Dramatized I i: We must bleed some of the dupes.
1828		‘A Flat Enlightened’ Life in the West I 47: [T]hey ‘bleed’ their victims to death, or as long as they can ‘draw’ them of a pound.
1832		Satirist (London) 25 Nov. 384/2: I was conveyed to Cripplegate within, after stopping, par parenthesis, for a few hours (by way of bleeding) at the gentleman’s office, in Fetter-lane.
1842		Wkly Rake (NY) 24 Sept. n.p.: He is infatuated with a resident of this brothel, and gets bled profusely by his Dulcinea .
1843		W.T. Moncrieff Scamps of London I ii: I shall bleed our man for a cool ten thousand, at least.
1850		Thackeray Pendennis II 305: You lent her sixty pounds five years ago. She and that poor devil of an insurance clerk, her son, have paid you fifty pounds a year ever since [...] By Jove, sir, you’ve bled that poor woman enough.
1850		‘Ned Buntline’ G’hals of N.Y. 62: They were flush, and likely to be very easily bled.
1859		G.F. Atkinson Curry & Rice (3 edn) n.p.: [H]aving been profusely bled by the Bank, his opinion might be somewhat biassed.
1862		‘Artemus Ward’ Artemus Ward, His Book 107: I put up to their extorshuns until thay’d bled me so I was a meer shadder.
1867		Sportsman 3 Dec. 2/1: Notes on News [...] Ali Baba’s sister-in-law [...] managed to ‘bleed’ him to the extent of a few golden coins.
1870		East London Obs. 19 Mar. 6/6: Why, sir, I soon found that I couldn’t bleed you.
1872		G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the US Secret Service iv: Bleed, to cheat, over-reach, victimise, or extort money from.
1880		W. Hooe Sharping London 34: bleed, to obtain money by sharp practice or unfair means.
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 4 Dec. 6/1: [headline] bowery green rooms / How the Sirens of those High-Toned Resorts ‘Bleed the Flats’.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 9: Bleed, to victimise.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 241: sangsurer. To bleed a man of his money.
1898		Cheltenham Chron. 24 Sept. 3/2: Bleeding the Bookies [...] Nine bookmakers paid [fines of] £15 between them.
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 180: Some of ’em bleed the pub [...] worse than any municipal police force in the country.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 6 Mar. 1/6: Randwick ain’t the only one / Where the public goes and’s bleeded.
1912		G.R. Chester Five Thousand an Hour Ch. xxi: You bled me for two years, and yet you have the ingrowing gall to come and tell me you’re broke.
1926		Truth (Perth) 27 Feb. 8/4: ‘It is scandalous the way these warders bleed us blokes,’ he said .
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 76: This helped to convince me that I should bleed the sucker.
1933		R. Chandler ‘Blackmailers Don’t Shoot’ in Red Wind (1946) 105: Atkinson has been bleeding me for years, one way and another.
1937		D.L. Sayers Busman’s Honeymoon (1974) 177: Five bob a week he been bleeding me for these last two years.
1944		R.L. Bellem ‘Focus on Death’ Hollywood Detective Jan. 🌐 You’re the heel who’s been bleeding me, threatening to inform my wife I had a crush on Trixie Trask.
1951		M. Spillane One Lonely Night 63: Oscar had intended to bleed me for all the money he could. [Ibid.] 86: Oscar came to town to bleed Lee and he wouldn’t bleed.
1962		T. Berger Reinhart in Love (1963) 151: I can’t give you no more straight salary than twenty a week, and don’t try to bleed me for better.
1977		S. Berkoff East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 62: Pop eyed for a pathetic wet customer to bleed.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 91: Bleed To take advantage of or extort someone.
1999		J. Ridley Love Is a Racket 327: How long before we bleed him?
2008		Simon & Pelecanos ‘Late Editions’ Wire ser. 5 ep. 9 [TV script] I tell you, we bled that motherfucker.
2012		C. Rosmus ‘Hangdog’ in C. Rhatigan and N. Bird (eds) Pulp Ink 2 [ebook] Carolyn had bled Hank for drinks and bucks.

2. (UK Und.) to part with one’s money without complaint, to submit oneself to extortion.

1668		Dryden An Evening’s Love IV i: In fine, he is vehement, and bleeds on to fourscore or an hundred; and I, not willing to tempt Fortune, come away a moderate winner of two hundred Pistoles.
1669		Nicker Nicked in Harleian Misc. II (1809) 109: [If] they think you are a sure bubble, they will many times purposely lose some small sum to you the first time, to engage you more freely to bleed (as they call it).
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 202: Bleed freely, part with their money easily.
1748		Dyche & Pardon New General Eng. Dict. (5th edn) n.p.: Bleed (v.) ... also to part with money freely, upon proposing something agreeable to a person’s disposition, whether it be in gaming or anything else.
1751		Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 354: To whom he was particularly agreeable, on account of his person, address, and bleeding freely at play.
1764		Bath Chron. 13 Sept. 3/4: How many more thousand Britons are to bleed, how many more Millions sterling to be consumed upon this Object of foreign Expence.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 396: Should the damn’d rogue who did the deed / Chance to be rich enough to bleed / A good round sum.
1797		Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) II 196: [as cit. 1772].
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1818		W. Perry London Guide 77: He bleeds the least sum of money probable for the occasion.
1823		Age (London) 22 May 14/3: It was distinctly avowed by the defendants that [a proposed victim] ‘was a rich man, and could bleed well!’.
1832		Albany Microscope (NY) 2 June n.p.: Wm. Gillespie [...] has made us bleed to the amount of 2.00.
1833		‘The Slap-Up Cracksman’ in Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 42: Then lush away each rummy prig, / And freely bleed a quid.
1842		Cork Examiner 10 Jan. 2/6: This is the youth they have resolved to plunder. Well — let him bleed. Five thousand pounds in the first instance.
1845		‘A Week in Oxford’ in Bell’s Life in Sydney 1 Nov. 4/5: Sundry proposals are entertained for fresh attacks on ‘the old buck's bank,’ and consultations granted as to the wording of a letter best calculated to make him ‘bleed freely’.
1848		Southern Reporter & Cork Commercial Courier 26 Aug. 2/6: Oh! what pleasure [can] excel of enjoying a feed at the public expense? — Whilst the pigeons were being pluckd [...] Unmurmuringly bleed their pounds, shillings and pence.
1849		Paul Pry 16 Apr. 3/1: [B]eware of false friends, who ‘stick’ to him like ‘bricks’ while he ‘bleeds’ freely, but deserting him when he ceases to do so.
1850		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 18 May n.p.: The victim is in most cases happy to bleed freely for the benefit of his persecutor, in order to purchase his silence.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter II 219: ‘What news. has he bled?’ ‘No, Harry, [...] he has not bled’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 June 12/2: He is a patriot, and has offered his invention to his own Government for a modest consideration. The blind parties in power, however, will not ‘bleed.’ He thereupon threatens to sell it to the Russians.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 28 Oct. 5/8: ‘Defendant’s costs in this action have been taxed and allow by the taxing officer at £271‘ [...] Jaypee had to bleed ‘immediately’.
1902		Truth (Sydney) 7 Sept. 8/3: Awl the time she’s bleedin’ freely, / For she are a fair milch cow.
1951		see sense 1.

3. (UK Und.) to rob.

1850		Ulster Gaz. 23 Mar. 2/5: They mediatated also [...] taking money out of Mr Ryan’s [cash] drawer, which in the seminary slang described ‘turning the cooney’ and ‘bleeding the drawer’.
1851		‘Greenhorn’ [G. Thompson] Bristol Bill 12/2: ‘We’ll bleed the old covey tonight. D—n him he has had more swag than he’s a right to!’ .

4. (US) to take advantage of.

1969

‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 61: I sat there [...] trying to think of questions that would bleed him.

In compounds

bleeding cully (n.) (also bleeding cull, bleeding gamester) [cully n.¹ (1)/cull n.¹ (2)]

a gullible victim, who parts cheerfully with their money.

1668		Dryden An Evening’s Love IV i: This is the Folly of a bleeding Gamester, who will obstinately pursue a losing Hand.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: bleeding cully, an easy Fellow, that is profuse with his Money, or to be persuaded to support all the Extravagancies of his Companion or Mistress, at his own Expence.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: cull men who are man [sic = made] easy preys to a whore, there are many of this description, such as keeping culls, flogging culls, coffin culls, bleeding culls, ruff culls, hanging culls, and knowing culls.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.

bleeding dirt (n.) [dirt n. (7)]

(gay) extorting money from homosexuals.

1941		G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 4: bleeding dirt (n.): The petty racket by professional criminals and underworld characters of trying to provoke homosexuals into some overt act and then extorting money from them. (Criminal slang.).

In phrases

bleed white (v.) [the lit. image]

to submit to excessive extortion, thus draining every drop of money/blood.

1905		H. Lawson ‘Joseph’s Dreams and Reuben’s Brethren’ in Roderick (1967–9) II 117: He boodled till the land was blue, / He squeezed them tight, and bled them white.
1915		Day Book (Chicago) 29 Dec. 23/1: It is for the ‘benefit and protection’ of our employers that we are asked to bleed ourselves white.
1922		N.Y. Tribune 24 Dec. 3/2: The undertaker is afraid to tackle her. She would bleed him white.
1947		N. Algren Neon Wilderness (1986) 183: The slut is bleeding me white.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 145: [They] are forced into line through threats against their relatives in the old country. They are bled white in shakedowns.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

bleeding new (adj.) [the image of fish, which bleed only when they are fresh]

fresh, new.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Bleeding New. Metaphor borrowed from Fish, which will not bleed when stale.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.:
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.

In phrases

bleed like a (stuck) pig (v.)

to bleed heavily, to lose a good deal of blood.

1607		Dekker & Webster Westward Hoe V iii: He bleedes like a Pig, for his crowne’s crackt.
1698		Unnatural Mother in Nares n.p.: By the zide of the wood there is a curious hansom gentlewoman lies as dead as a herring, and bleeds like any stuck pig [F&H].
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Sept. 24/1: Both ‘chivvies’ were badly bruised by the end of round three, and Ruhlin bled like the stuck pig of tradition.

bleed one’s turkey (v.)

see under turkey n.¹

bleed the lizard (v.)

see under lizard n.

young bleed (n.) [? she will bleed when deflowered]

(US black) a female virgin.

2000

Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 young bleed Definition: a woman who hasn’t had sexual intercourse Example: Damn nigga you hit dat young-bleed, and stole her shit!

your nose is bleeding

advice to a man or boy that his trouser fly is open.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1367/2: [...] later C.19–mid 20.

bleed v.1

In compounds

In phrases

SE in slang uses

In compounds

In phrases

bleed v.¹