\Vam"pire\, n. [F. vampire (cf. It. vampiro, G. & D.
vampir), fr. Servian vampir.] [Written also {vampyre}.]
1. A blood-sucking ghost; a soul of a dead person
   superstitiously believed to come from the grave and wander
   about by night sucking the blood of persons asleep, thus
   causing their death. This superstition is now prevalent in
   parts of Eastern Europe, and was especially current in
   Hungary about the year 1730.
         The persons who turn vampires are generally wizards,
         witches, suicides, and persons who have come to a
         violent end, or have been cursed by their parents or
         by the church,                        --Encyc. Brit.
2. Fig.: One who lives by preying on others; an extortioner;
   a bloodsucker.
3. (Zo["o]l.) Either one of two or more species of South
   American blood-sucking bats belonging to the genera
   {Desmodus} and {Diphylla}. These bats are destitute of
   molar teeth, but have strong, sharp cutting incisors with
   which they make punctured wounds from which they suck the
   blood of horses, cattle, and other animals, as well as
   man, chiefly during sleep. They have a c[ae]cal appendage
   to the stomach, in which the blood with which they gorge
   themselves is stored.
4. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of several species of harmless tropical
   American bats of the genus {Vampyrus}, especially {V.
   spectrum}. These bats feed upon insects and fruit, but
   were formerly erroneously supposed to suck the blood of
   man and animals. Called also {false vampire}.
{Vampire bat} (Zo["o]l.), a vampire, 3.