intubate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to insert a tube into (the trachea, digestive tract, etc.).
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to treat (a patient) by inserting a tube into the trachea, digestive tract, etc.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of intubate
Explanation
To intubate is to insert a tube into something or someone. This is usually a medical procedure, so don't try to intubate someone at home. See the word tube hiding in intubate? That's a clue that this is a word for inserting a tube somewhere, usually into a person for a medical purpose. Intubating is often performed on people who are having throat problems: the tube is inserted into the throat, allowing the patient to breathe. Other types of intubating may be used to feed a patient who is unable to eat.
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:
"They go straight into status asthmaticus and… unless you intubate them within a certain time, if they have a respiratory arrest, you have four minutes, otherwise they're brain dead," she explains.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
If you needed to intubate me right now, you could do it?
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2025
In serious cases, doctors might have to provide adrenaline to counteract the reaction or even intubate the patient.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 23, 2023
Some doctors are more reluctant to intubate young patients; sometimes the patients themselves refuse it.
From New York Times ● Oct. 6, 2022
Josh wasn’t doing well, and they were going to try and intubate him.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 11, 2022
Lewis was intubated and needed a specialized procedure across the state to survive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025
One of the workers is in a coma, according to reports by Italian news agency Ansa, who report that he was resuscitated, intubated and taken to San Bassiano hospital by helicopter.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2025
He was intubated and placed in a medically induced coma, which is a common step in treating severe smoke inhalation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2025
"She was intubated and ventilated at the time, and was in a completely different hospital to me."
From BBC ● Jan. 10, 2025
“You have patients of your own to deal with. Let’s get this young woman intubated and transferred to the OR. That will do her more good than all this dillydallying around!”
From "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman
The prosecution acknowledged that its case was "complicated by the sub-optimal treatment" given to Baby H, namely that there was an "unacceptable delay" in intubating her and administering medicine to help her lungs.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2023
They knew to avoid intubating patients when possible, having learned that many people who are put on ventilators never come off.
From New York Times ● Feb. 5, 2022
“It’s not so much like they’re COVID-sick patients that we’re intubating left and right.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 24, 2022
He pondered what to tell patients before intubating them.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 23, 2021
A Adult's size; B, child's size; C, infant's diagnostic size; D, anterior commissure laryngoscope; E, with drainage canal; 17, intubating laryngoscope, large lumen.
From Bronchoscopy and Esophagoscopy A Manual of Peroral Endoscopy and Laryngeal Surgery by Chevalier Jackson
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.
