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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

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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

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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

Corinna Barrett Lain: So when you think of the obfuscation, you know, you might want to ask yourself: Why are they on a gurney?

From Slate ● Oct. 6, 2026

Finally, the long-anticipated moment arrived: Firefighters wheeled out a gurney carrying Hernán Alberto Gil Flores — a security guard who survived for more than a week trapped under a mountain of rubble.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 5, 2026

Styles channels Noah Wyle’s Dr. Robby, marching toward an incoming patient on a gurney as she’s pushed through the ER hallway.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 15, 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

Jim lay on a gurney, covered with a comforter.

From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel

He owned his portrayal of Gurney Halleck in “Dune” so completely that nobody blinked when he dashed into a battle scene bellowing mightily while clutching a pug, of all things.

From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2026

Later, you can watch Gurney charging into planetary battle holding — what’s this? — a sweet-looking pug.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2026

Defending champion Michael van Gerwen fell to a 6-5 defeat by Daryl Gurney in the opening round of the World Series of Darts Finals in Amsterdam.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

Over the course of his career, Gurney has authored more than 180 scientific papers that have received more than 20,000 citations.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 18, 2026

It is one from Richenda Gurney to Elizabeth Fry—the Elizabeth Fry, good angel of gloomy Newgate Prison, of course.

From Through East Anglia in a Motor Car by J. E. (James Edmund) Vincent

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

The new season doesn’t ease up on its episodic biopsies of bad policy results piling up on the gurneys lining the trauma center’s walls.

From Salon ● Jan. 8, 2026

That leads to a spillover into the corridors, with patients in wheelchairs, on hospital beds and gurneys filling all the available space.

From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2025

I'm in a huge room filled with rows of gurneys and chemicals boiling under metal hoods.

From "Legend" by Marie Lu

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