gauze
Americannoun
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any thin and often transparent fabric made from any fiber in a plain or open weave.
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a surgical dressing of loosely woven cotton.
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any material made of an open, meshlike weave, as of wire.
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a thin haze.
noun
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a transparent cloth of loose plain or leno weave
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( as modifier )
a gauze veil
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a surgical dressing of muslin or similar material
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any thin openwork material, such as wire
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a fine mist or haze
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of gauze
First recorded in 1555–65; from French gaze; ultimate origin unknown
Explanation
Gauze is a loosely woven, almost translucent fabric that's used to bandage wounds. If you get a bad burn, a doctor might clean it and cover it with gauze. In medicine, gauze has several uses. Sterile gauze is usually kept in a sealed package, to ensure that it's perfectly clean. It can be used to clean cuts, scrapes, and burns, and also acts as a large bandage. There is also a non-medical fabric called gauze that's used in light, warm-weather clothing. The word's origin is mysterious — one guess traces it to the Arabic gazz, or "raw silk."
Vocabulary lists containing gauze
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" by Jeff Kinney
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Out Of Whole Cloth: Material Words
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Amal Unbound
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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.
Gauze is typically employed to control bleeding during medical interventions, aiding in hemostasis.
From Science Daily • Feb. 23, 2024
Down Gauze Street, past Silk Street and up Mill Street, Mark Macmillan lives in a former cotton mill that is now an apartment building.
From New York Times • Mar. 16, 2017
These "hemostatic dressings," with names like Combat Gauze and QuickClot, were developed and originally used by the military.
From US News • Sep. 9, 2016
A new generation of bandage, called Combat Gauze, may help solve that problem.
From Washington Post • Nov. 1, 2010
Pads of Gauze sterilised by compressed circulating steam have almost entirely superseded marine sponges for operative purposes.
From Manual of Surgery Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition. by Thomson, Alexis
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.
