bleeding out

Meanings

1. 1phrasephrasal verb

   losing blood quickly and in large amounts, especially so that death is likely

   Grammar: Intransitive; used mainly in the continuous form. You can say 'He is bleeding out' but not 'He bleeds out' in this sense.

   Patterns

   • someone is bleeding out
   • bleed out from a wound

   The soldier was bleeding out from a deep wound in his leg.

   If the patient keeps bleeding out, we need to get him to surgery immediately.

   She was bleeding out on the roadside before the ambulance arrived.

2. 2phrasephrasal verb

   to die from losing too much blood

   Grammar: Intransitive; often used in the past tense to describe a death. The subject is usually a person or animal.

   Patterns

   • someone bled out
   • bleed out on the scene

   The victim bled out before paramedics could reach him.

   Without a tourniquet, he would have bled out in minutes.

   The hiker bled out after a fall on the remote trail.

Common combinations

bleed out from a wound

He was bleeding out from a gunshot wound to the chest.

bleed out on the ground

The man lay bleeding out on the ground until help came.

bleed out internally

After the crash, she was bleeding out internally and needed emergency surgery.

Synonyms and how they differ

hemorrhage

A medical term for serious bleeding; it can be used as a verb but is more formal than 'bleeding out'.

exsanguinate

A technical medical term meaning to drain of blood; it is very formal and not used in everyday speech.

Word family

bleed verb

To lose blood from the body.

bleeding noun

The process of losing blood.

Commonly confused: bleeding out or bleed?

Practice

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Write a sentence using “bleeding out”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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