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Showing results for trephine. Search instead for trephining.
Synonyms

trephine

American  
[trih-fahyn, -feen] / trɪˈfaɪn, -ˈfin /

noun

  1. a small circular saw with a center pin mounted on a strong hollow metal shaft to which is attached a transverse handle: used in surgery to remove circular disks of bone from the skull.


verb (used with object)

trephined, trephining
  1. to operate upon with a trephine.

trephine British  
/ trɪˈfiːn, ˌtrɛfɪˈneɪʃən /

noun

  1. a surgical sawlike instrument for removing circular sections of bone, esp from the skull

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. (tr) to remove a circular section of bone from (esp the skull)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of trephine

1620–30; spelling variant of trefine, originally trafine, blend of trapan (variant of trepan 1 ) and Latin phrase trēs fīnēs three ends (the inventor's explanation)

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:

We aspirated all brain tissue inside the trephine.

From Nature Mar. 21, 2017

The sharp point of this she pressed into her scalp over a trephine hole.

From Time Magazine Archive

It is even probable that the trephine holes found in prehistoric skulls 50,000 years old were made for curative purposes.

From Time Magazine Archive

He has already applied the trephine to the cold-storage eye which an assistant holds by means of sterile gauze.

From Time Magazine Archive

Guy de Chauliac's Instruments:--21, bow for extracting arrows the head of which had penetrated a limb; 22, mechanical trephine revolved by up-and-down movement of cross-bar.

From The Popes and Science The History of the Papal Relations to Science During the Middle Ages and Down to Our Own Time by Walsh, James J.

But with items such as a circa 1500 Austrian amputation saw and trephined Peruvian skulls from 4,000 years ago, upon which cranial surgery was performed, it’s aware of its yuck factor.

From Washington Post Oct. 11, 2018

Dr. Erich Kosterlitz had trephined the girl as a last effort to cure her of epilepsy.

From Time Magazine Archive

The wound was dressed and trephined, and the results awaited.

From The Lost Art of Reading by Lee, Gerald Stanley

Of the entire number five totally blind eyes were trephined.

From Glaucoma A Symposium Presented at a Meeting of the Chicago Ophthalmological Society, November 17, 1913 by Nance, Willis O.

The patient was trephined by the surgeons of the German ambulance at Jacobsdal.

From Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900 Being Mainly a Clinical Study of the Nature and Effects of Injuries Produced by Bullets of Small Calibre by Makins, George Henry

The museum’s artist-in-residence program features forensic sculptor Kathleen Gallo, who has given faces to the ancients who endured trephining.

From Washington Post Aug. 5, 2021

Once the trephining of the skull was over . . . my mood underwent a change.

From Time Magazine Archive

"The operation of trephining the skull, which was widely and successfully practiced by primitive peoples in nearly all parts of the world, may be considered the highest achievement of prehistoric surgeons."

From Time Magazine Archive

“Then,” continued Dr. Rapperschwyll, “Monsieur will perhaps acknowledge that a more beautiful or more extensive case of trephining has rarely come under his observation.”

From Stories by American Authors, Volume 10 by Various

Those of us who have had the pleasure of seeing the trephining operation done by Col.

From Glaucoma A Symposium Presented at a Meeting of the Chicago Ophthalmological Society, November 17, 1913 by Nance, Willis O.

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