blood meal
1
6.1
- noun
- /blʌd miːl/
- Specialized
:
harina de sangre
- As the protein in the blood meal is digested, the female uses it to make a batch of eggs.
- blood meal source
- multiple blood meals
Examples
-
To obtain a blood meal, a hard tick must attach to a vertebrate host for several days.
Academic text (1997) -
When certain arctic Aedes mosquitoes obtain a blood meal, they will produce about 100 eggs per oviposition.
Academic text (1992) -
In a few more days, the females are ready to search for their blood meal.
Academic text (1996) -
Adults can survive for years without a blood meal, but a female will need to feed before fertilization.
Academic text (2011) -
The nymph requires a blood meal in order to develop into a mature adult.
Academic text (2011) -
Female mosquitoes use these gases and other cues to find a blood meal.
Academic text (1996) -
But if you don't fertilize with like a fish emulsion or a blood meal, I'll let the wind pass.
-
The mechanisms that inhibit host-seeking after a blood meal are indeed less developed in night biters than in day biters.
Academic text (1992) -
The newly hatched tick larva, about the size of a poppy seed or full stop, typically takes its only blood meal from one such animal and thus acquires the infective organism(s), which is passed to the next nymph phase.
Academic text (2014) -
Many gardeners use blood meal as a natural fertilizer because it is high in nitrogen.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is compositionally built from 'blood' + 'meal' and can be interpreted as 'meal (ground/powder) made from blood', so its basic concept is motivated by the constituents. However, the noun 'meal' has multiple senses (food portion vs. ground/powder in compounds like 'bone meal'), and the specialized agricultural sense may not be obvious to a B1 learner, making the meaning only partially predictable without exposure.
Etymology
Blood meal is a very literal name: it is animal blood that has been dried and ground into a powder called a meal. Gardeners and farmers spread this red powder on soil as a 'fertilizer' or mix it into feed to add 'protein', so the name tells you exactly what it is and how it is used.