trephine

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a surgical instrument with a cylindrical cutting edge for removing a circular section of bone or other tissue

   The surgeon selected a fine trephine to remove a small disk of skull bone.

2. 2
   verb

   to operate on or perforate tissue with a trephine

   The damaged area was carefully trephined to relieve pressure beneath the skull.

Borrowed from French tréphine, related to trepan and ultimately to Latin trepanum and Ancient Greek trypanon ("auger, borer"). The noun names the circular surgical cutter; the verb developed directly from use of the instrument.

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