SAWBONES

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sawbones mean? 

• SAWBONES (noun)
  The noun SAWBONES has 1 sense:

1. a physician who specializes in surgery

  Familiarity information: SAWBONES used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SAWBONES (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A physician who specializes in surgery

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

operating surgeon; sawbones; surgeon

Hypernyms ("sawbones" is a kind of...):

doc; doctor; Dr.; MD; medico; physician (a licensed medical practitioner)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sawbones"):

amputator (a surgeon who removes part or all of a limb)

cosmetic surgeon; plastic surgeon (a surgeon who beautifies the body (especially the face))

brain surgeon; neurosurgeon (someone who does surgery on the nervous system (especially the brain))

Instance hyponyms:

Beaumont; William Beaumont (United States surgeon remembered for his studies of digestion (1785-1853))

Alexis Carrel; Carrel (French surgeon and biologist who developed a way to suture and graft blood vessels (1873-1944))

Cowper; William Cowper (English surgeon who discovered Cowper's gland (1666-1709))

De Bakey; Michael Ellis De Bakey (United States heart surgeon who in 1966 implanted the first artificial heart in a human patient (born in 1908))

Gorgas; William Crawford Gorgas (United States Army surgeon who suppressed yellow fever in Havana and in the Panama Canal Zone (1854-1920))

Baron Lister; Joseph Lister; Lister (English surgeon who was the first to use antiseptics (1827-1912))

James Parkinson; Parkinson (English surgeon (1755-1824))

Reed; Walter Reed (United States physician who proved that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes (1851-1902))

 Context examples 

Well, sir, he was like the rest of us; every time he looked at my prisoner, I saw that sawbones turn sick and white with the desire to kill him.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Well, the child was not much the worse, more frightened, according to the sawbones; and there you might have supposed would be an end to it.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)