bloodletting
noun
blood·let·ting
ˈbləd-ˌle-tiŋ 
1
2
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
Bill OttBut 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
Terry TeachoutExamples of bloodletting in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
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
For those of us who survived this corporate bloodletting, we were offered bland gestures of perseverance and then told to get back to work the next day.
—Steve Denning, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for bloodletting
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
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
For those of us who survived this corporate bloodletting, we were offered bland gestures of perseverance and then told to get back to work the next day.
—Steve Denning, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for bloodletting
Cite this Entry
“Bloodletting.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bloodletting. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
bloodletting
noun
blood·let·ting
ˈbləd-ˌlet-iŋ
1
: the opening of a vein for the purpose of drawing blood
Medical Definition
bloodletting
noun
blood·let·ting
-ˌlet-iŋ
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share