fleam
Definitions
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- noun A river; a stream.
- noun A water-course; a trench or drain.
- noun 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.
- noun In heraldry, a bearing thought by some to represent the farriers' lancet, but more probably a builders' cramp of iron, whence often called crampon.
Examples
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He fumbled in his pockets as he spoke, and, as chance would it, the "fleam" (or cattle lancet) was somewhere about his dress.
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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.
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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.
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Tutbury Hydro Electric Project (THEP), River Dove, on the Staffordshire/Derbyshire border, which aims to reinstate the mill fleam (a man-made water course running alongside the park) and install a micro hydro electric plan.
Note
The word 'fleam' comes ultimately from a Greek root meaning 'blood vessel; vein'.
