The Definition of "Vampire"

Definition of "Vampire"

"In popular legend, a bloodsucking creature that rises from its burial place at night, sometimes in the form of a bat, to drink the blood of humans.

By daybreak it must return to its grave or to a coffin filled with its native earth. Tales of vampires are part of the world's folklore, most notably in Hungary and the Balkan Peninsula. The disinterment in Serbia in 1725 and 1732 of several fluid-filled corpses that villagers claimed were behind a plague of vampirism led to widespread interest and imaginative treatment of vampirism throughout western Europe. Vampires are supposedly dead humans (originally suicides, heretics, or criminals) who maintain a kind of life by biting the necks of living humans and sucking their blood; their victims also become vampires after death. These "undead" creatures cast no shadow and are not reflected in mirrors. They can be warded off by crucifixes or wreaths of garlic and can be killed by exposure to the sun or by an oak stake driven through the heart. The most famous vampire is Count Dracula from Bram Stoker's novel Dracula (1897)."

*From Encyclopedia Britannica*

Other definitions:

(folklore) a corpse that rises at night to drink the blood of the living

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The vampire is an 'undead' being who gains energy by sucking the blood from living victims. A bite from a vampire causes the victim in turn to become 'undead'. Count Dracula is undoubtedly the most famous vampire, created by writer Bram Stoker in 1897. The novel was based on a real fifteenth century Transylvanian Count, Vlad the Impaler, who was known for his hobby of watching his prisoners die a slow and torturous death impaled on high poles. Deaths caused by suicides in some Eastern European countries were treated with great suspicion up until the beginning of this century. Victims were buried at crossroads and their graves were covered in crosses, which represented knots, to stop them 'walking' from their graves.

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Immortal, soulless demon forced to drink blood to stay alive. They have long canines with which they can puncture a human neck to extract blood. They can also make other vampires by drinking the human's blood and forcing the human to drink their blood. They are very strong.

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Demonic creatures who live off the blood of humans; a vampire appears to be a normal person until the feed is upon them -- only then do they reveal their true demonic visage.

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In folklore a corpse that rises from the grave during the night, often in the form of a bat, and, for nourishment, sucks the blood of sleeping humans. Various talismans and herbs supposedly avert vampires, but, according to tradition, they can be destroyed only by cremation or by stakes driven through their hearts. Belief in vampires originated in ancient times and was especially widespread among the Slavs. The novel Dracula (1897) by the British writer Bram Stoker tells the story of the Transylvanian vampire Count Dracula, who became one of the most popular subjects of horror films.