vampire
Meanings
noun
- A mythological creature (usually humanoid and undead) said to feed on the blood or life energy of the living.
- A person with habits traditionally ascribed to (literal) vampires, such as heliophobia, being a night owl, having pale skin, and so on.
- A person with the medical condition porphyria cutanea tarda, colloquially known as vampirism, with effects such as photosensitivity and brownish-red stained teeth.
- A blood-sucking bat; vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus)
- A person who drains one's time, energy, money, etc.
- A vamp: a seductive woman who exploits men.
- A medical technician who works with patients' blood; especially, a phlebotomist.
- Synonym of anti-ship missile (ASM), particularly an incoming hostile one.
verb
- To drain of energy or resources.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From French vampire, from German Vampir, via Hungarian from a Slavic word, probably Serbo-Croatian vàmpīr /ва̀мпӣр, from Proto-Slavic *ǫpyrь, further possibly from Proto-Turkic *ōpur (“glutton, witch, evil spirit”), or from native construction. Doublet of oupire.
Synonyms
Related words
Derived words
Previous
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.