Definition of "phlebotomy"

Now butter with a leafe of Sage is good to Parge the bloud, Fly Venus and Phlebotomy for they are neither good.

1607 (first performance), [Francis Beaumont], The Knight of the Burning Pestle, London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for Walter Burre, […], published 1613, Act IV, signature I3, verso

Phlebotomy is promiscuously used before and after physick, commonly before and upon occasion is often reiterated, if there be any need at least of it.

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, partition II, section 5, member 1, subsection ii

He had even taken from his pocket a cupping apparatus, and was about to proceed to phlebotomy, when the object of his anxious solicitude suddenly revived […].

1820, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […]

Of course, members of the family were foremost in spilling loyal blood on Marston Moor, that great field of plebotomy to so may Cavaliers.

1859, George Meredith, chapter 2, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall

Then she made an impatient gesture with her hand. "Time was, my dear colleague, when a snuff-box was as much part of my equipment as my phlebotomy case."

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019