trepan
UK /tɹɪˈpæn/ · US /tɹəˈpæn/ noun, verb
Forms trepans trepanning trepanned
- noun A tool used to bore through rock when sinking shafts.
- noun (medicine) A surgical instrument used to remove a circular section of bone from the skull; a trephine.
- verb (transitive, manufacturing, mining) To create a large hole by making a narrow groove outlining the shape of the hole and then removing the plug of material remaining by less expensive means.
- verb (medicine) To use a trepan; to trephine.
Synonyms
Etymology
Borrowed into Middle English from Old French trepan, from Latin trepanum, from Ancient Greek τρύπανον (trúpanon, “auger, borer”). Doublet of trephine.
See trapan.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A crown-saw or cylindrical saw for perforating the skull, turned, when used, like a bit or gimlet. See Trephine.
- noun A kind of broad chisel for sinking shafts.
- verb To perforate (the skull) with a trepan, so as to remove a portion of the bone, and thus relieve the brain from pressure or irritation; to perform an operation with the trepan.
- noun A snare; a trapan.
Etymology [F. trépan (cf. Sp. trépano, It. trepano, trapano), LL. trepanum, fr. Gr. Trephine.]
Etymology [Cf. F. trépaner. See Trepan a saw.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “trepan”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details