bloodletting

noun

blood·​let·​ting ˈbləd-ˌle-tiŋ 

1

: phlebotomy

2

: bloodshed

3

: elimination of personnel or resources

4

: severe criticism

Take the English, the undisputed champions at verbal bloodletting.

—Bill Ott

: a harsh verbal or written attack

But what makes "Cinderella & Company" more than just a book-length bloodletting is Hoelterhoff's unexpected sympathy for most of the singers about whom she writes.

—Terry Teachout

Examples of bloodletting in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In the midst of such bloodletting, the launch of such a project may seem surprising at best and a waste of resources at worst. —Kendall Bianchi, Foreign Affairs, 18 Sep. 2017

That bloodletting is after accounting for the market’s bounce late Monday and into Tuesday. —Brendan Coffey, Sportico.com, 9 Apr. 2025

Both of these aspects set the tone for the raw carnage that would be reproduced in Doom Eternal (2020), a solid sequel that doubled down on the gratuitous bloodletting and amped up the industrial sound of the Doom (2016) OST to a new level. —Kazuma Hashimoto, Rolling Stone, 31 Mar. 2025

Interestingly, this shifting debate over how cognition influences culture coincides with a spate of research bridging psychology and anthropology, which explores why certain behaviors – such as singing lullabies, curative bloodletting and storytelling – recur across human cultures. —Eli Elster, The Conversation, 19 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for bloodletting

• abetting
• begetting
• besetting
• briquetting
• forgetting
• offsetting
• pipetting
• regretting
• resetting
• subletting
• typesetting
• upsetting

Kids Definition

bloodletting

noun

blood·​let·​ting ˈbləd-ˌlet-iŋ 

1

: the opening of a vein for the purpose of drawing blood

2

: bloodshed sense 2

Medical Definition

bloodletting

noun

blood·​let·​ting -ˌlet-iŋ 

: phlebotomy