sawbones
Americannoun
PLURAL
sawbones, sawbonesesnoun
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012Etymology
Origin of sawbones
First recorded in 1830–40; saw 1 + bone + -s 3 ( def. )
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.
The novel is set in the present day, but potatoes are “spuds,” coffee is “joe,” food is “chow,” mosquitoes are “skeeters” and a doctor is “the local sawbones.”
From New York Times
Like most central characters in doctor shows, Conrad – no one he likes calls him Dr. Hawkins -- is essentially a superhero: smarter, quicker, better and better-looking than your ordinary sawbones.
From Los Angeles Times
Handily, Igor also turns out to be a genius of a kind, an expert draftsman and amateur sawbones who’s eager to help Victor with some of his dodgier scientific experiments.
From New York Times
A typical surgeon’s kit from the period contained a variety of knives and bone saws, thus inspiring the slang term for doctors “sawbones.”
From Literature
“Put the sawbones like me out of business.”
From The New Yorker
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.
