Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various devices worn in the vagina to support or correct the position of the uterus or rectum.
- n. A contraceptive diaphragm.
- n. A medicated vaginal suppository.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In medicine, an instrument made, in various forms, of elastic or rigid materials, and worn in the vagina to remedy various uterine displacements.
Wiktionary
- n. A medical device similar to the outer ring of a contraceptive diaphragm, most commonly used to support a displaced uterus; also called therapeutic pessary.
- n. A diaphragm.
- n. A vaginal suppository.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An instrument or device to be introduced into and worn in the vagina, to support the uterus, or remedy a malposition.
- n. A medicinal substance in the form of a bolus or mass, designed for introduction into the vagina; a vaginal suppository.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a contraceptive device consisting of a flexible dome-shaped cup made of rubber or plastic; it is filled with spermicide and fitted over the uterine cervix
Etymologies
- Middle English pessarie, from Late Latin pessārium, from pessus, pessum, from Greek pessos, oval-shaped stone, pessary.
Examples
“Sometimes urinary incontinence is so severe that medication, a device called a pessary, or surgery is the only option to get it under control.”
“Treatment may involve use of a vaginal pessary, which is a device placed in the vagina for support.”
“Afterwards, as Dottie is preparing to leave, he tells her to get herself a "pessary" (this is American for a diaphragm).”
“_ -- These are reliable only when carefully adjusted over the mouth of the womb, and many women find it very difficult to adjust this kind of pessary correctly; hence numbers of failures.”
“Approaches to stress incontinence include weight loss if obesity is present, a vaginal pessary, and surgery.”
“She introduced the pessary (diaphragm) to the Netherlands despite intense opposition from male colleagues, held a free clinic for poor women two mornings a week, and campaigned to change the unhealthy working conditions of salesgirls.”
“I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.”
OpEdNews - Diary: The Tragedy of Health Care Reform in America
“Newmania said ... like a pessary up Lord Browne's bottom - it just doesn't bear thinking about.”
“No worries Roger, you are obviously not aware of my sense of humour and reluctance to be sucked into the European Union, like a pessary up Lord Browne's bottom - it just doesn't bear thinking about.”
“Or have a pessary, osteoporosis, breast cancer, abnormal paps, abnormal bleeding or are on hormone replacement and you need to come in more often than once every two years.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pessary’.
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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• Iroquoisy
Isn't it? (See definition on iroquoisy.)
iroquoisy, iroquois, fruit bat, coccyx, heiligenschein, homesick, schadenfreude, awooga, tralatition, pessary, Kateri Tekakwitha, Cilicia and 27 more...
reesetee Happy 50th Anniversary of the Pill, everyone. :-) May 10, 2010
ruzuzu Hey! That's iroquoisy. Someone had listed Marxist, so I was looking at the Reds list, then I was looking up the movie Reds, then I was reading about Emma Goldman, and that brought me to Margaret Sanger. May 10, 2010
chained_bear I like this part of that article:
'One of his targets was Margaret Sanger, a nurse who wrote a sex education column, “What Every Girl Should Know,” for a left-wing New York newspaper, The Call. When Comstock banned her column on venereal disease, the paper ran an empty space with the title: “What Every Girl Should Know: Nothing, by Order of the U.S. Post Office.”' May 10, 2010
john “(The first big victory had the memorable name of U.S. v. One Package of Japanese Pessaries.) ”
The New York Times, What Every Girl Should Know, by Gail Collins, May 7, 2010 May 8, 2010