bedpan
Americannoun
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a shallow vessel placed under a bedridden patient to collect faeces and urine
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another name for warming pan
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of bedpan
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:
She reserved her deepest attention for the orderlies who came in to change her bedpan and her sheets.
From Slate ● Jun. 4, 2023
“Susan wanted to crawl under the nearest bedpan and hide,” he wrote.
From New York Times ● Apr. 18, 2023
But after one of my colleagues said it looked like a bedpan, I just couldn’t unsee the resemblance.
From The Verge ● May 28, 2022
The curriculum covers the practical aspects of working in a nursing home: bed-making, catheter care, using a bedpan and transferring residents from a wheelchair to a bed.
From Salon ● Jan. 2, 2022
Fiona would be doing the second bedpan round by now.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
Even as the labor market has softened, healthcare jobs have stayed plentiful: People spend on healthcare in good times and bad, and thus far, the ability to change bedpans and insert IVs hasn’t been automated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2025
Some describe the closeness they have with the people whose bedpans they change, whose medications they administer.
From New York Times ● Jun. 13, 2023
Today, she cannot do anything for herself, relies on bedpans and is unable to bathe, shower or dress herself.
From BBC ● Mar. 18, 2022
I was the lowest form of nurse, taking the bedpans, and I met a kind of different person than I had before.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 10, 2016
“I was there, cleaning out the bedpans on that detention from Snape, remember?”
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
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.
