To bleed means to lose blood from your body, usually because of a cut, scrape, or injury. When you skin your knee falling off your bike, it bleeds. The blood flows out through the broken skin until your body forms a clot to stop it.

The word also describes other things flowing or spreading outward. When wet watercolor paint bleeds across paper, it spreads beyond where you first put your brush. Newspaper ink might bleed through thin pages, making words visible on the other side. A company that's bleeding money is losing it steadily, like blood draining from a wound.

Doctors and veterinarians carefully monitor bleeding to make sure injuries heal properly. A small cut stops bleeding quickly on its own, but serious injuries need medical attention. Your body has an amazing system for stopping blood loss: platelets rush to the wound and form a clot, like a natural bandage from the inside.

People sometimes use the word figuratively to express deep emotional pain. When someone says their heart is bleeding for a friend going through hard times, they mean they feel genuine sorrow and compassion. This usage recognizes that emotional pain can feel as real and urgent as physical injury, even though no actual blood is involved.