leech

An aquatic blood-sucking annelid of subclass Hirudinea, especially Hirudo medicinalis.

The leech on his leg had swelled to more than five inches long, puffed and swollen on his blood.

A person who derives advantage from others in a parasitic fashion.

'Wrecked his body and his mind, no use to hisself or his family or nobody, just a leech on society'.

At this point, I felt this man was a leech. I suspected that he had spent a lifetime living off the good will of women that he met.

A glass tube designed for drawing blood from damaged tissue by means of a vacuum.

To apply a leech medicinally, so that it sucks blood from the patient.

The poppy made him sleep and while he slept they leeched him to drain off the bad blood.

To drain (resources) without giving back.

Near-synonyms: mooch, suck down

Bert leeched hundreds of files from the BBS, but never uploaded anything in return.

A physician.

Many skillful leeches him abide to salve his hurts.

The word Physitian we do vulgarly abuse (as we doe very many other(s)) for a Leech , or Medicus.

A healer.

Their functions are threefold, those of the medicine-man (the leech, or healer by supernatural means); of the soothsayer (the prophet through communion with the invisible world); and of the priest, especially in his capacity as exorcist

In ancient times runesters were a specialized class separate from that of the witch or ordinary spell caster (much as the other specialists such as the leech or healer and the seithkona were different from a witch), and even today many believe it takes years of training to become adept at using the runes in spell work.