noun.
A kind of spectral being or ghost still possessing a human body, which, according to a superstition existing among the Slavic and other races on the lower Danube, leaves the grave during the night, and maintains a semblance of life by sucking the warm blood of living men and women while they are asleep.
noun.
Hence, a person who preys on others; an extortioner or blood-sucker.
noun.
Same as vampire-bat.
noun.
Theat., a small trap made of two flaps held together by a spring, used for sudden appearances and disappearances of one person.
Of or pertaining to a vampire; resembling a vampire in character; blood-sucking; extortionate; vampiric.