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• gurney
  gurney

  noun

  a flat, padded table or stretcher with legs and wheels, for transporting patients or bodies.
• Gurney
  Gurney

  noun

  Ivor ( Bertie ). 1890–1937, British poet and composer, noted esp for his songs and his poems of World War I

gurney

American  

[gur-nee] / ˈgɜr ni /

noun

• gurneys
  plural

1. a flat, padded table or stretcher with legs and wheels, for transporting patients or bodies.

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Gurney ¹ British  

/ ˈɡɜːnɪ /

noun

1. Ivor ( Bertie ). 1890–1937, British poet and composer, noted esp for his songs and his poems of World War I

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gurney ² British  

/ ˈɡɜːnɪ /

noun

1. a wheeled stretcher for transporting hospital patients

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• gurneys
  plural

Etymology

Origin of gurney

First recorded in 1935–40; of uncertain origin; perhaps after J. Theodore Gurney, American inventor, who invented a two-wheeled horse-drawn cab in 1883

Explanation

A gurney is a device used to move a patient who can't easily walk and needs to lie flat. Unlike a stretcher, a gurney has wheels so that it doesn't need to be carried. When an EMT transports a patient from an ambulance into a hospital emergency room, she uses a gurney. Patients with back injuries often require a gurney so that they can be moved safely, and you might find yourself on a gurney if you need any kind of surgery that calls for general anesthesia. When this word first appeared in the 1920s, it referred to hospital carts used to transport food and laundry.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gurney Gurney gurneys

An hour later, on a gurney in the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai, I waited to be admitted overnight.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026

Paramedics later put the injured man on a gurney and place him in an ambulance.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026

It’s said that he was dictating more criticism on the gurney that carried him to his final operation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026

There, lying on a gurney was the very woman who had selected Dr Bhargava to head the hospital - Indira Gandhi.

From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2025

They leave, and I slowly sink back onto the gurney, the weight of everything pressing down on my entire body.

From "Five Feet Apart" by Rachael Lippincott

The top back row options for coach Stefanie Wigfall, who will likely pass the 400-win mark this season, are senior Olive Shum and Mira Costa transfer Blake Gurney.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026

Gurney, whose expertise spans atmospheric science, ecology and public policy, has spent more than 20 years developing standardized approaches for measuring greenhouse gas emissions across the United States.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 18, 2026

“I will use AI sometimes, but it’s a last resort for me,” said Leo Gurney, a 19-year-old college student in London.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 31, 2026

The first four sets all went against the throw, with Gurney twice winning deciding legs to hit the front before being pegged back.

From BBC ● Dec. 19, 2025

When George Borrow first entered Norwich after the long journey from Edinburgh, Joseph John Gurney, born 1788, was twenty-six years of age, and William Taylor, born 1765, was forty-nine. 

From The Life of George Borrow by Clement K. Shorter

An AFP reporter at the scene witnessed people being carried out of the wreckage on gurneys and loaded into waiting ambulances as hundreds of bystanders looked on, some seemingly in shock.

From Barron's ● Apr. 27, 2026

Background actors who fill the overcrowded waiting room or lie on gurneys waiting for treatment have medical journeys organized by the show’s production team.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

They see and treat heart attacks and strokes, or don’t see them, learning that sometimes the people they think are fine to leave waiting on gurneys aren’t.

From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2025

Piled outside the Two Palms Nursing Center were soot-stained gurneys and wheelchairs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 8, 2025

The floor is linoleum, olive green and white, and in the middle are two gurneys.

From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

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