trepan

¹ American  

[trih-pan] / trɪˈpæn /

noun

1. a tool for cutting shallow holes by removing a core.

2. Surgery. an obsolete form of the trephine resembling a carpenter's bit and brace.

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verb (used with object)

trepanned, trepanning

1. Machinery. to cut circular disks from (plate stock) using a rotating cutter.

2. Surgery. to operate upon with a trepan; trephine.

trepan ² American  

[trih-pan] / trɪˈpæn /

Also trapan

noun

1. a person who ensnares or entraps others.

2. a stratagem; a trap.

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verb (used with object)

trepanned, trepanning

1. to ensnare or entrap.

2. to entice.

3. to cheat or swindle.

trepan ¹ British  

/ trɪˈpæn, ˌtrɛpəˈneɪʃən /

noun

1. surgery an instrument resembling a carpenter's brace and bit formerly used to remove circular sections of bone (esp from the skull) Compare trephine

2. a tool for cutting out circular blanks or for making grooves around a fixed centre

3. 1. the operation of cutting a hole with such a tool

   2. the hole so produced

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verb

1. to cut (a hole or groove) with a trepan

2. surgery another word for trephine

trepan ² British  

/ trɪˈpæn, trəˈpæn /

verb

1. to entice, ensnare, or entrap

2. to swindle or cheat

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noun

1. a person or thing that traps

Other Word Forms

• trapanation noun
• trapanner noun
• trepanation noun
• trepanner noun

Etymology

Origin of trepan¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English noun trepane, from Middle French trepan “surgical crown saw,” from Medieval Latin trepanum, from Greek trȳ́panon “borer,”verb derivative of the noun

Origin of trepan²

First recorded in 1635–45; earlier trapan; of obscure origin; perhaps a derivative of trap ¹

Example Sentences

Marshal Ney had a silver trepan in his skull, a bullet wound in his ankle.

From Time Magazine Archive

Fearful things: bonesaws, abdomen retractor, trocar and trepan.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

Who'd have thought the needy profligate would have hesitated to plunge his trepan into the brain of a dying man—a corpse, you may say, already—for five hundred guineas?

From The House by the Church-Yard by Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan

Hilarion: And weasels at their slumbers They trepan Cyril & Florian: They trepan; Hilarion: To get sunbeams from cucumbers They've a plan Cyril & Florian: They've a plan.

From The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan by Gilbert, W. S. (William Schwenck), Sir

Then one proposed he should be bled,— "No, leeched you mean," the other said, "Clap on a blister!" roared another,— "No! cup him,"—"No, trepan him, brother."

From The Book of Humorous Verse by Wells, Carolyn