medevac

American  

[med-uh-vak] / ˈmɛd əˌvæk /

Or Medevac,

noun

1. a helicopter for evacuating the wounded from a battlefield.

2. an ambulance or other vehicle equipped for emergency transport of medical patients.

3. any of the trained personnel transporting or otherwise tending to the sick or wounded in a medevac.

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verb (used with object)

medevacked, medevacking

1. to transport (sick or wounded persons) by medevac.

medevac British  

/ ˈmɛdɪˌvæk /

noun

1. military the evacuation of casualties from forward areas to the nearest hospital or base

2. a helicopter used for transporting wounded or sick people to hospital

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verb

1. (tr) to transport (a wounded or sick person) to hospital by medevac

Etymology

Origin of medevac

1965–70, med(ical) evac(uation) ; presumably by ellipsis from medevac helicopter

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

medevac medevacked

Skytraders deputy chief executive Duncan Mackay told the Australian newspaper the plane had undergone a complete refit into a specialised medevac configuration within 24 hours of the call.

From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026

The cost of a medevac helicopter was in the tens of thousands of dollars.

From Salon ● May 27, 2026

I flew down immediately and found a medevac plane to fly her home to Portland.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026

But the Department of Homeland Security said that Alanís was not among those being pursued and that federal agents called in a medevac for him.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2025

He told me that everyone talked about John and the medevac flight.

From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French

By nightfall, he’d been medevacked nearly 1,500 miles to Seattle Children’s hospital after X-rays located a grapefruit-sized malignant tumor growing on the right side of his brain.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 30, 2022

"We were told there was a child being medevacked to Tampa General, but he was not expected to live," Blair said in a video shared by the sheriff’s office.

From Fox News ● Jul. 28, 2021

“There was a Department of Defense official from the U.S. Embassy in Russia that had to be medevacked from the U.S. Embassy out of Russia,” said Carla Gleason, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

From New York Times ● Nov. 2, 2019

I have sometimes felt wobbly after an interview, but not until my hour with Jackson had I felt the need to be medevacked to safety.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2019

“But in a couple days, I had convulsions and collapsed. After this, they medevacked me to hospitals in Saudi Arabia and Germany, and then to the U.S.”

From Newsweek ● Mar. 27, 2015