in blood

English

Prepositional phrase

(archaic, hunting) In a state of perfect health and vigour.
- c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
  If we be English deer, be then in blood:
  Not rascal-like, to fall down with a pinch.
In a blood relationship, in which one is related by blood.
- 1870, Joseph Story, Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence: As Administered in England and America, page 225:
  ... his privies in blood (heirs) and privies in representation (executors and administrators). For it has not been doubted, that privies in blood and privies in representation might, after the death of the insane party, avoid his […]
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in,‎ blood. With blood; by losing blood.
Members of the foreign legion paid in blood for their new citizenship.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “in blood”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)