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
You can intubate any one of us, I think.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 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
Six days later, with his oxygen level falling further, doctors decided to intubate him and induce a coma.
From New York Times ● Sep. 9, 2022
Josh wasn’t doing well, and they were going to try and intubate him.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 11, 2022
She was taken to the hospital, where she was intubated and placed on a ventilator.
From Slate ● Oct. 7, 2026
She was rushed to a Nashville-area hospital where she was intubated and put on a ventilator, her lawyers said in a court filing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
"She is intubated, on a ventilator, and remains unconscious," he added.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
Arenas remains intubated, but the son of former NBA player Gilbert Arenas opened his eyes and was able to communicate by writing on a piece of paper.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 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
Those two individuals, the investigation found, exchanged a “high-five” after completing their turns intubating body.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 1, 2023
The doctor who sent the text message considered intubating the child in the E.R. while he waited for a closer bed to become available.
From New York Times ● Oct. 11, 2022
“Now we’re finding, as we go along, that, with some of these patients, quickly intubating for the ventilator is not necessarily the best answer,” Tovar said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 26, 2020
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.
