curette

American  

[kyoo-ret] / kyʊˈrɛt /

Also curet

noun

1. a scoop-shaped surgical instrument for removing tissue from body cavities, as the uterus.

---

verb (used with object)

curetted, curetting

1. to scrape with a curette.

curette British  

/ kjʊəˈrɛt /

noun

1. a surgical instrument for removing dead tissue, growths, etc, from the walls of certain body cavities

---

verb

1. (tr) to scrape or clean with such an instrument

Etymology

Origin of curette

First recorded in 1745–55; from French, equivalent to cur(er) “to cleanse” + -ette feminine noun suffix; see origin at -ette, cure

Example Sentences

Then the uterus itself is scraped with a dull-edged curette, a small spoon-shaped instrument, until all embryonic matter has been removed.

From Time Magazine Archive

In this method, the dermatologist applies a local anesthetic and then scrapes away the soft, mushy tumor cells with a curette, an instrument with a sharp circular blade.

From Time Magazine Archive

And so many blood-vessels being dead, being scooped away by that sharp curette, how could the blood circulate in the top half of that flaccid thigh?

From The Backwash of War The Human Wreckage of the Battlefield as Witnessed by an American Hospital Nurse by La Motte, Ellen Newbold

By the use of such caustics as caustic potash, chloride-of-zinc paste, pyrogallic acid, arsenic, and the galvano-cautery; and by operative measures, such as excision and erasion with the dermal curette, and by the x-ray.

From Essentials of Diseases of the Skin Including the Syphilodermata Arranged in the Form of Questions and Answers Prepared Especially for Students of Medicine by Stelwagon, Henry Weightman

Callous ulcers are best removed by a curette, knife, or hot iron and then treated like a common wound.

From Special Report on Diseases of the Horse by Michener, Charles B.