Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In surgery and farriery, a sharp instrument for lancing the gums or for opening veins in bloodletting; a lancet; in the most restricted sense, a form of spring-lancet.
- n. In heraldry, a bearing thought by some to represent the farriers' lancet, but more probably a builders' cramp of iron, whence often called crampon.
- n. Same as phlegm.
- n. A river; a stream.
- n. A water-course; a trench or drain.
Wiktionary
- n. A sharp instrument used to open a vein, to lance gums, or the like.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Surg. & Far.) A sharp instrument used for opening veins, lancing gums, etc.; a kind of lancet.
Etymologies
- From Old French flieme ("open vein"), from Late Latin phlebotomus, from Ancient Greek φλεβοτόμον (phlebotomon). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“He fumbled in his pockets as he spoke, and, as chance would it, the "fleam" (or cattle lancet) was somewhere about his dress.”
“Just as you can use Google images to see what a fleam looks like without knowing what it means or how to translate destornillador without bothering to find out what language it is, you can use Google trends to learn about words that have distinct temporal profiles.”
Rambles at starchamber.com » Blog Archive » Sense-making with Google Trends
“Lacking a decent syringe for drawing blood, I'd merely pierced the vein inside his elbow with a fleam, and drained off the welling blood into a small vial.”
“Among these was a blacksmith and farrier, who took cognizance of his carcase, every limb of which having examined, he declared there was no bone broken, and taking out his fleam, blooded him plentifully as he lay.”
“Clinker perceiving these signs of life, immediately tied up his arm with a garter, and, pulling out a horse-fleam, let him blood in the farrier stile. —”
“Loggun (Denham and Clapperton), the Fán fleam, the “small piece of iron like an ace of spades on the upper Nile””
“The article I chiefly accused myself of forgetting was a stout English clasp-knife, with a large handle, a blade like an “Arkansas toothpick,” and possessing the other useful appliances of picker, fleam, tweezers, lancet, and punch.”
“She realized that she was making him wait, contemplate the fleam lying in its case, and listen to the furnace that would soon consume him.”
Simon & Schuster: Lilith’s Dream: A Tale of the Vampire Life
“After lacing the black sneakers, she pulled back the baseboard where she kept her cache, and withdrew the fleam she kept there.”
Simon & Schuster: Lilith’s Dream: A Tale of the Vampire Life
“She laid the fleam against his neck, flicked it into the vein, drew it out.”
Simon & Schuster: Lilith’s Dream: A Tale of the Vampire Life
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fleam’.
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phrontistery - f
from phrontistery.info
fabaceous, fabiform, fabulist, faburden, face-cord, facetiae, facia, facinorous, factious, factitious, factitive, factive and 418 more...
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Farriery
"The art of shoeing horses; also, the art of treating the diseases of horses, now technically called veterinary surgery."
--Century Dictionaryfarriery, crapaudine, grease, interference, cloy, buttress, grape, grapes, farrier, horseshoe, fullering, calk and 27 more...
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Body Horror
Scary medical words
suture, flense, hypodermic, aenesthetize, tightlace, stitch, graft, guthook, syringe, lancet, fleam, scarificator and 1 more...
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ecbrenner's list
flatline, luddism, apocalipstick, muttsucker, leviathan of fore..., flint, coryphaeus, donnybrook, bandwidth, bagpipe the mizen, cheesed off, asterism and 525 more...
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Forgotten English 1
jacal, mastaba, lucarne, quoin, triglyph, gargarice, nimgimmer, phrenologize, fleam, eaglestone, toad eater, king's evil and 156 more...
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List of Heraldry Terms
Words and phrases used in blazoning heraldic devices, along with names and other terms associated with the art and science.
Other similar lists can be found on Wordnik, especially that...seiant, duciper, bourdon, pouch, scrip, staff, ananas, besant d'argent, roundle, roundel, argent, allocamelus and 743 more...
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cutting words
sarcasm, sarx, sarcoptic, syssarcosis, shrew, shrewd, screed, scred, shroud, scroll, scrod, scrutiny and 326 more...
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Random
These are just some random words that I might find a list for someday.
troglodytism, chinkle, vasculum, sabz, cucullus, tricornigerous, cuboctahedron, eruca, gamp, pilum, taha, angelhood and 244 more...
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Not Yet Colde in it's Grave
Some semblances strange & others nearer, dearer, yet more familiar... . .
ac, amber, ambyre, ancor-rap, and, anda, atol, bana, band, beadu, beadu-weorc, bealu and 446 more...
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Wordie/Wordnik Curio Cabinet
Oddments culled from my "main" lists that belong in a display cabinet of their own, plus sundry other curiosities. :-)
zeugma, ziggurat, xiphoid, xeric, whizgigging, whangdoodle, viviparous, vivific, vinolent, verjuice, vellicate, velleity and 1193 more...
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...a list from a notebook...
I found several pages of words in an old notebook. By the looks of it, they were words I learnt some time ago (and subsequently wrote down) from books by Patrick O'Brian and China Mieville, two aut...
trabacaloes, jocosity, ordnance, transom, douceur, purser, nostrum, gaby, sea-lawyer, bowsprit, officious, hobnailed and 124 more...
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Depraved and Insulting English
Vocabulary from Peter Novobatzky's and Ammon Shea's highly entertaining book of words I wish I could use in conversation.
ablutophobic, aboiement, abydocomist, acalculiac, achilous, acokoinonia, acrocephalic, acrotophiliac, acrotomophiliac, ameliotist, apotemnophiliac, monopediomaniac and 349 more...
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Object Lesson
An A to Z of interesting object names.
Inspired by http://phrontistery.info.argyll, baetyl, crumenal, dwile, écuelle, fleam, graip, harpagon, ising, jimswinger, killock, lorgnette and 14 more...
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quackery
snake oil & leeches
nostrum, quack, charlatan, snake oil, cure-all, liniment, patent medicine, panacea, shill, alchemy, humours, leech and 16 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fleam.
xstala it's here:
http://www.gggodwin.com/cartgenie/prodInfo.asp?pid=63&cid=15
Jan 9, 2009
yarb When he was laid upon the grass and turned from side to side, a great quantity of water ran out at his mouth, then he opened his eyes, and fetched a deep sigh. Clinker perceiving these signs of life, immediately tied up his arm with a garter, and, pulling out a horse-fleam, let him blood in the farrier stile.
- Smollett, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (Melford to Phillips), 1771 Jan 8, 2009
trivet A veterinarian's bleeding tool. See a picture here. Apr 19, 2007