chiefly British, informal + sometimes offensive
—used like bloody or damned as a generalized intensive
One fan said: "What the bleeding hell happened???"—
Charlotte Tutton
Charlotte TuttonI said, "Shirley, your house is on fire!" She looked at me and said, "Michael, that's the pool. That's steam." I was such a bleeding idiot, such a putz.—Michael Caine
Michael CaineExamples of bleeding in a Sentence
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These injuries resulted in 684 days lost per 1,000 training hours during menstruation, compared to 206 days lost during non-bleeding days.
—Ciara Lucas, SELF, 16 Dec. 2025
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Ciara Lucas, SELF, 16 Dec. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Bleeding.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bleeding. Accessed 19 Dec. 2025.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
bleeding
noun
bleed·ing
-iŋ 
: an act, instance, or result of being bled or the process by which something is bled: as
a
: the escape of blood from vessels : hemorrhage
b
: the operation of bleeding a person medically : phlebotomy
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