tourniquet
Americannoun
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Medicine/Medical, Surgery. any device for arresting bleeding by forcibly compressing a blood vessel, as a bandage tightened by twisting.
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a device for pulling the parts of a wooden piece of furniture together, consisting of a pair of twisted cords passed around the parts.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of tourniquet
1685–95; < French, derivative of tourner to turn
Explanation
A tourniquet is a device used to control the flow of blood temporarily. If you cut your knee really badly, the doctor might put a tourniquet on your thigh before operating — to control the blood flow to your knee. A tourniquet is usually used for two purposes in medicine. In surgery, a tourniquet is used to stop the flow of blood to a limb while it is being operated on. In an emergency, a tourniquet is used to control blood loss. By compressing around the veins that bring blood to a limb, a tourniquet stops or slows the flow of blood temporarily.
Vocabulary lists containing tourniquet
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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:
According to the UC Davis Health Center, you should not apply ice or a tourniquet, or attempt to suck out the venom or use a device to cut the affected area.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 23, 2026
Nwangene feels the hospital authorities did not do enough for his daughter - and questions why they removed the tourniquet if they did not have the medication to treat her.
From BBC ● Feb. 7, 2026
A passerby used a belt as a tourniquet to stop him from losing too much blood, saving his life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025
Adrian applied a tourniquet and pinched shut the artery in Dan's thigh to stop him bleeding to death.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2025
We tore outside to find Millard wearing a tourniquet and Bronwyn by his side.
From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs
Sir David described how fellow rugby players stopped to help him, using their ties as tourniquets before he was taken to hospital for life-saving surgery.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2025
A week before his death, Pelletier helped save a motorcyclist’s life by applying tourniquets to the person’s arms after an accident, Loughman said.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 5, 2024
This, he said, included a range of issues -- better tourniquets, digitalisation and better communication.
From Reuters ● Nov. 19, 2023
The therapies these healers provide—sucking venom from the wound, applying tourniquets and offering charred animal bones called “black stones”—not only delay access to care but also can lead to additional medical complications.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 23, 2023
Around her, doctors, nurses, and medics sprang into gear, hanging IV bottles on poles and throwing extra tourniquets around their shoulders.
From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge
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.
