Meanings
- uncountablebiologyAn anticoagulant secretion of leeches.
Hirudinin, a powerful anticoagulant secreted by the leech, causes continued bleeding after the leech has detached.
2008, Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 17th edition, McGraw-Hill, page 27502 more examples
In bloodsucking leeches, the stomach becomes a spacious crop with lateral, paired caeca for the storage of food between feedings, and the saliva contains the anticoagulant hirudinin, which keeps the food fluid until digestion.
1988, Gerald D. Schmidt, Marvin C. Meyer & O. Wilford Olsenʼs Essentials of Parasitology, Dubuque, Iowa: W.C. Brown, page 184Secretion of the anticoagulant hirudinin (a specific, highly effective thrombin inhibitor) at the bite site by the leech assures oozing or dripping of blood from the bite well after the leech has completed its meal.
1989, Robert Goldsmith, Donald Heyneman, Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, Norwalk, Connecticut/San Mateo, California: Appleton & Lange, page 759
Origin
From Latin hirūdin- (“leech”) + -in.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
hirudinin. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hirudinin
“hirudinin.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hirudinin. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hirudinin,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hirudinin.
Source: hirudinin on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.