bedpan
Americannoun
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a shallow vessel placed under a bedridden patient to collect faeces and urine
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another name for warming pan
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of bedpan
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Among the new finds are an anchor, glass bottles and a bedpan, according to a statement from the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2024
She reserved her deepest attention for the orderlies who came in to change her bedpan and her sheets.
From Slate ● Jun. 4, 2023
But after one of my colleagues said it looked like a bedpan, I just couldn’t unsee the resemblance.
From The Verge ● May 28, 2022
The curriculum covers the practical aspects of working in a nursing home: bed-making, catheter care, using a bedpan and transferring residents from a wheelchair to a bed.
From Salon ● Jan. 2, 2022
I get the pitcher of water near the bedpan and splash some on the wooden planks of the floor and then some on my face.
From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black
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Even as the labor market has softened, healthcare jobs have stayed plentiful: People spend on healthcare in good times and bad, and thus far, the ability to change bedpans and insert IVs hasn’t been automated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2025
"To be told the NHS no longer provides you with bedpans, and have to go to Amazon to have one delivered - that's not right," she said.
From BBC ● Jan. 26, 2024
Some describe the closeness they have with the people whose bedpans they change, whose medications they administer.
From New York Times ● Jun. 13, 2023
Ricky, 46, says he was routinely cursed and yelled at by an elderly client and has never been paid as much as minimum wage for changing bedpans and diapers, among other chores.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2023
Her mother was a nurse at the hospital, counting pills, drawing blood, changing bedpans, no stranger to night and double shifts.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.