Meaning & use
trephine
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Meanings
nouncountablemedicaltechnical
A surgical tool with a circular, saw-like edge that cuts a round piece out of bone or another tissue.
Grammar: Countable: a trephine, several trephines.
Patterns
- a trephine for something
The surgeon used a trephine to remove a small disk of bone.
An eye surgeon may use a trephine to cut a clear circle from the cornea.
The museum displays an old trephine with a wooden handle.
verbtransitivemedicaltechnical
To cut a round hole in bone, especially the skull, with a trephine.
Grammar: Takes an object: trephine the skull.
Patterns
- trephine something
The surgeon trephined the skull to relieve the pressure.
Ancient healers trephined patients with simple stone tools.
Word forms
| plural | trephines |
|---|---|
| third person singular | trephines |
| past tense | trephined |
| past participle | trephined |
| -ing form | trephining |
Common combinations
- use a trephine
- The doctor used a trephine to take a bone sample.
- trephine biopsy
- A trephine biopsy of the bone marrow confirmed the diagnosis.
- trephine the skull
- Prehistoric people trephined the skull, and some patients survived.
- corneal trephine
- A corneal trephine cuts a circular graft.
- trephine hole
- The trephine hole had partly healed in the ancient skull.
Synonyms and how they differ
- trepan
- Trepan is an older word for the same kind of instrument or the same operation, and it is less used in modern medicine.
- bore
- Bore means to drill a hole in general, whereas trephine is a medical cutter that removes a round disk.
- punch
- Punch describes any tool that makes a hole by pushing, but trephine is a rotating surgical cutter.
Word family
- trephination noun
- the operation of cutting a round hole in the skull
- trephining noun
- another word for trephination
- trepan verb
- an older word for to trephine
- trephined adjective
- having had a circular hole cut in the bone
Practice
To reach the bone marrow, the doctor used a ___ to remove a small cylinder of bone.
Choose one answer.
A trephine is a hollow circular cutter that removes a core of bone. A scalpel makes incisions and forceps grip, while a stethoscope listens to the body.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “trephine”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.