Definitions for vampireˈvæm paɪər

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Random House Webster's College Dictionary

vam•pireˈvæm paɪər(n.)

  1. (in E European folklore) a corpse, animated by an undeparted soul or a demon, that periodically leaves the grave and disturbs the living. any of various popular or literary representations of the folkloric vampire, typically a being that sucks the blood of sleeping persons at night.

    Category: Mythology

  2. a person who preys ruthlessly upon others.

  3. a woman who seduces and exploits men.

Origin of vampire:

1725–35; (< F) < G Vampir < Serbo-Croatian vàmpīr

vam•pir′ic-ˈpɪr ɪk(adj.)

Princeton's WordNet

  1. vampire, lamia(noun)

    (folklore) a corpse that rises at night to drink the blood of the living

Kernerman English Learner's Dictionary

  1. vampire(noun)ˈvæm paɪər

    an imaginary being that drinks human blood

Wiktionary

  1. vampire(Noun)

    A mythological undead creature said to feed on human blood.

  2. vampire(Noun)

    A person with the medical condition Systemic lupus erythematosus, colloquially known as vampirism, with effects such as photosensitivity, brownish-red stained teeth, and increased night vision.

  3. vampire(Noun)

    A blood-sucking bat; vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus)

Webster Dictionary

  1. Vampire(noun)

    a blood-sucking ghost; a soul of a dead person superstitiously believed to come from the grave and wander about by night sucking the blood of persons asleep, thus causing their death. This superstition is now prevalent in parts of Eastern Europe, and was especially current in Hungary about the year 1730

  2. Vampire(noun)

    fig.: One who lives by preying on others; an extortioner; a bloodsucker

  3. Vampire(noun)

    either one of two or more species of South American blood-sucking bats belonging to the genera Desmodus and Diphylla. These bats are destitute of molar teeth, but have strong, sharp cutting incisors with which they make punctured wounds from which they suck the blood of horses, cattle, and other animals, as well as man, chiefly during sleep. They have a caecal appendage to the stomach, in which the blood with which they gorge themselves is stored

  4. Vampire(noun)

    any one of several species of harmless tropical American bats of the genus Vampyrus, especially V. spectrum. These bats feed upon insects and fruit, but were formerly erroneously supposed to suck the blood of man and animals. Called also false vampire

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

  1. Vampire

    the ghost of a dead person accursed, fabled to issue from the grave at night and suck the blood of the living as they sleep, the victims of whom are subject to the same fate; the belief is of Slavonic origin, and common among the Slavs.


Translations for vampire

Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary

vampire(noun)

a dead person who is imagined to rise from the grave at night and suck the blood of sleeping people.

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