epidural
Americanadjective
noun
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of epidural
1880–85; < epi- + dur(a mater) + -al 1 ( def. )
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:
The epidural did not work properly and I still was able to feel the pain.
From Slate ● Jan. 11, 2026
Unlike in my first labor, I was recommended an epidural for the pain.
From Slate ● Jan. 11, 2026
The shortage arose after a major supplier stopped making epidural infusion bags, it is understood.
From BBC ● Dec. 21, 2025
How effective do you think an epidural subsidy will be in reversing Japan’s declining birthrate?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2025
McVay has said that Stafford received an epidural injection a few weeks ago, but on Tuesday he declined to specify if he had received another.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2025
"In clinical practice, epidurals are given in carefully controlled doses because blocking sensory nerves completely can make labor much longer," notes Zhang.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 13, 2026
But the big reason for Japanese hesitancy around epidurals is cultural, according to moms, midwives and doctors, with a “natural” birth without pain relief viewed by some as an essential rite of passage in motherhood.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2025
Some patients also benefit from medical technology like epidurals, and a minority benefit from surgeons, “which is what obstetricians are.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2023
Evidence suggests fewer epidurals might mean fewer births using instruments like forceps and ventouse vacuum suction, says NICE.
From BBC ● Apr. 25, 2023
But before her hotly anticipated next special comes out in 2018, several comics are turning diapers and epidurals into blunt, confessional comedy.
From New York Times ● Oct. 13, 2017
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.
