vampire

A mythological creature (usually humanoid and undead) said to feed on the blood or life energy of the living.

Noun

  1. A mythological creature (usually humanoid and undead) said to feed on the blood or life energy of the living.
    • Bram Stoker's novel Dracula built on centuries-old stories of vampires and also encouraged new growth of the mythology.
    • [I]n the Village of Medreyga in Hungary, certain dead Bodies (call'd there Vampyres) had kill'd several Persons by sucking out all their Blood: That Arnold Paul, an Heyduke, having kill'd four Persons after he was dead,...
    • The universal belief is, that a person sucked by a vampyre becomes a vampyre himself, and sucks in his turn. - 1819, John William Polidori, The Vampyre, London: Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, page xxi:

    Synonyms: nosferatu lamia

  2. A person with habits traditionally ascribed to (literal) vampires, such as heliophobia, being a night owl, having pale skin, and so on.
    • Near-synonyms: heliophobe, goth
    • Somehow I doubt that Kelly will want to go surfing with us — she's such a vampire that she might recoil from the sun, lol!

    Synonyms: heliophobe goth

  3. A person with the medical condition porphyria cutanea tarda, colloquially known as vampirism, with effects such as photosensitivity and brownish-red stained teeth.
  4. A blood-sucking bat; vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus)

    Synonyms: vampire bat

  5. A person who drains one's time, energy, money, etc.
    • emotional vampire
    • You have to be careful what you tell her, because she's such a vampire for drama.
  6. A vamp: a seductive woman who exploits men.
    • "What followed this decision was exactly what we had expected: Mr. Fox, realizing that the public was tiring of Theda Bara in vampire roles, announced that he would star her in a production of Romeo and Juliet," she...
  7. A medical technician who works with patients' blood; especially, a phlebotomist.
    • Only one technician in the hospital lab, in all we have encountered, uses it. […] Eric makes no complaints other than those directed at the vampires. Brenda and I do. - 1992, Terry Pringle, This is the Child:
    • "I draw blood from patients, and then I take it back to the lab and analyze it. Sometimes, the vampires do all the sticks, that is to say the lab assistants do all the blood collections." He grinned. "We have our own...
  8. Synonym of anti-ship missile (ASM), particularly an incoming hostile one.
    • Vampire. Vampire. Vampire. Battle stations.

    Synonyms: anti-ship missile

Origin

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.

Forms

vampires vampyre wampyr

Synonyms

hemovore hematophagous

Related

vamp

Derived

energy vampire help vampire hopping vampire psychic vampire sea vampire time vampire vampicide vampire bat vampire bug vampire cough vampire crab vampire deer vampiredom vampire draw vampire facial vampire glove vampire ground finch vampirehood vampirekind vampireless vampirelike vampire moth vampire number vampiresque

Verb

  1. To drain of energy or resources.

Forms

vampires vampiring vampired vampyre wampyr

Related

werewolf bloodsucker hemovore Desmodus rotundus The meaning of the word