surgery
Pluralsurgeries
- 1Treatment in which a surgeon operates on the body, usually by cutting into it, to remove, repair, or replace a part.
Heart surgery carries significant risks even with modern techniques.
The surgeon performed the surgery under general anesthesia.
UsagePatients have surgery (surgery on a knee) and surgeons perform it; surgeries counts separate operations or kinds.
Similaroperation
- 2The branch of medicine concerned with treating injury or disease through operative procedures.
Surgery and internal medicine attract very different kinds of doctors.
She trained in surgery for over a decade before practicing independently.
UsageAs a field, used with in: trained in surgery, a career in surgery. Had surgery means being operated on instead.
- 3Drastic, far-reaching changes made to something in order to fix or improve it.
The failing department underwent major surgery after the merger.
After three losing seasons, the new coach said the team's style of play needed major surgery, not a few small tweaks.
UsageUsually major surgery, after need or undergo; you perform surgery on a plan or system.
Similaroverhaul, restructuring, reform
Note
Ian Griffiths writes that the C# compiler "performs some major surgery on your code" each time await is used. The figure suggests cutting into the inner workings of a thing rather than adjusting its surface, which is why it contrasts naturally with minor tweaks.
- 4A room or hospital department equipped for performing operations.
In the old naval hospital, the surgery had tall windows to give the doctors as much daylight as possible.
After the crash, the paramedics handed her to a team that wheeled her straight down the corridor and into surgery.
UsageOften without the: into surgery, in surgery, out of surgery.
- 5The local premises where a doctor, dentist or other practitioner sees and treats patients.
He walked down to the surgery to have his blood pressure checked.
Our local surgery has taken on two new doctors this year.
UsageUsed with the: go to the surgery, the doctor's surgery. In the US the usual word is doctor's office.
Less common meanings
- 6The hours during which a medical practitioner is available to see patients.
Evening surgery is often busier than the morning session.
He arrived just before surgery ended for the day.
UsageOften with a time of day: morning surgery, evening surgery.
Note
Here the word means a stretch of time rather than a place. It belongs to the same British usage as the GP's office. It often takes no article: "Surgery is from six to seven o'clock," in James Herriot's If Only They Could Talk (1970), where the practitioner is a vet.
- 7An arranged session at which people come and wait to speak privately with someone, especially a politician meeting constituents.
Voters brought their housing complaints to the MP's weekly surgery.
He set up a regular surgery so residents could raise local concerns.
UsageUsually hold a surgery: an MP holds a weekly surgery and people bring concerns to it.
Note
British politics borrowed the doctor's consulting hours. An MP holding a surgery receives constituents one at a time, much as a GP receives patients, often in a local venue such as a village hall.
- 8A pre-arranged, fast-tracked bankruptcy worked out largely before the formal filing.
- 9A technique for producing a new manifold by cutting out parts of one manifold and gluing in corresponding parts from others.
Practice
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Origin
Ancient Greek kheirourgía joined kheír ("hand") and érgon ("work"). It passed through Latin chirurgia and Old French surgerie before arriving in Middle English as surgerie. Chirurgy is a doublet of it.