Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A small flat absorbent pad used to medicate, drain, or protect a wound or sore.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small plug; in surgery, a small flat mass of lint, absorbent cotton, etc., used, for example, to lay over a wound to absorb the matter discharged.
- n. A string of oakum, such as is used in calking the seams of a vessel.
Wiktionary
- n. medicine A small flat absorbent pad of cotton or wool, used to medicate, drain, or protect a wound or sore.
- n. A string of oakum used in calking.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Prov. End. A small plug.
- n. (Naut.) A string of oakum used in calking.
- n. (Med.) A compress, or small flat tent of lint, laid over a wound, ulcer, or the like, to exclude air, retain dressings, or absorb the matter discharged.
Etymologies
- English dialect, a small plug. (Wiktionary)
- Origin unknown. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“(Syrian incense), a fir — gum imported from Scio, is melted and allowed to cool in the form of a pledget.”
“I said as she turned up my upper lip and tucked a pledget of plastic under it.”
“In these cases (clearly perceiving that the symptoms were governed by the state of the arms) I applied on the inoculated pustules, and renewed the application three or four times within an hour, a pledget of lint, previously soaked in aqua lythargyri acetati”
The Harvard Classics Volume 38 Scientific Papers (Physiology, Medicine, Surgery, Geology)
“He set to work and made a good job of it, with a pledget of lint and strips of plaister, and meanwhile I speculated as to why, in all these bottles and jars and gallipots, neither nature nor art could contrive to store a drug magistral for the blow that had riven my heart asunder.”
“And so saying, he lighted a little pledget of tow, previously steeped in turpentine, and, popping it into the tin vessel, clapped it on the head.”
“Every day the pledget which remains in the wound is to be drawn towards the most dependent part, so that the dressing in the wound may be daily renewed.”
“If, however, the wound is large, a pledget (_pecia_) of lint, long enough to extend from one end to the other and project a little, is placed in the wound, and over this the exterior portion of the wound is to be carefully sewed, and sprinkled daily with the _pulvis ruber_.”
“Upon the cranium and over the flaps of the scalp, as well as in their angles, the ordinary dressing of albumen is to be applied, covered by a pledget of lint and a suitable bandage.”
“When the intestinal wound is found to be healed, the entire pledget is to be removed and the unhealed openings dressed as in other simple wounds.”
“Then apply a pledget moistened with albumen, a pad and a splint in form of a cross, and over all a long bandage embracing both the arm and the neck and suspending the arm.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pledget’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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phrontistery - p
from phrontistery.info
pabouche, pabulous, pabulum, pacable, pace, pachydermia, pachyglossal, pachymeter, pachynsis, paciferous, pacificate, pactolian and 1766 more...
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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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Get, Got, Gotten
get a move on, misbegotten, got the gimmes, don't get me started, man's gotta eat, get a life, get lost, got religion, cat got your tongue?, get together, get the lead out, got milk? and 72 more...
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1755
Interesting words appearing in Samuel Johnson's Dictionary (1755). Some are interesting for their unfamiliarity, and some for the meanings then assigned by Johnson.
absonous, adumbrate, agrammatist, alderlievest, ambages, ana, anfrantuous, aperitive, assapanick, babery, bellytimber, blatant and 103 more...
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Most Obscure Words
acatalectic, acosmism, acuate, acuminate, adscititious, adytum, akratisma, alieniloquy, allelomorph, allochiria, allodium, alnage and 620 more...
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Browning words of cotton - often stic...
words that meander or have a partial dimension:
words that "catch on": peano curves: fractalitescotton, clue, filament, filaria, filum, filovirus, clod, cloud, peano curve, alveoli, nuance, noil and 122 more...
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The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
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Unsorted
poliorcetikon, lethologica, aegrotat, haha, logolepsy, logomisia, anfractuosity, nudiustertian, tontine, herostrat, acroamatic, bibliotaph and 132 more...
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It Has a Name??
Yes. Yes it does.
aglet, armsaye, scroop, rowel, ferrule, rasceta, chanking, philtrum, frenulum, keeper, agelast, punt and 285 more...
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Outlander series words
A place for me to keep words I found (or found anew) while reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. (Culling my enormous "Learned (or Encountered) in Reading" list.)
gralloch, yeuk, corpse-candle, saprophytic, baldachin, Kermanshah, celandine, tynchal, quaich, mesentery, basidium, dittany and 244 more...
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Physiological Terms
Terms used in physiology
contabescence, infix, instill, demulcent, pachystichous, pachyhaemous, adrenal, suprarenal, adrenocorticotropic, remedial, flaccid, phosphene and 136 more...
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Brochettes of Random Palavery
Another of my random palavery lists for words or phrases that haven't yet found a place in one or more of my other lists.
nonexclusivity, adaptationist, paxillin, adduct, unblushingly cribbed, ptomaïne, microsievert, millisievert, too big to jail, tastemaker, tinsmithing, Nimzo-Indian and 1616 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pledget.
chained_bear "'We have been as active as ants, carrying our sick to their bay and making all ready in the berth: lint galore, swabs, pledgets, chains, saws, gags. When do you suppose the action will begin?'"
--Patrick O'Brian, The Nutmeg of Consolation, 155 Mar 6, 2008
reesetee It sounds as though it should be a tool of some sort, but no! It's "a small, flat mass of lint, absorbent cotton, or the like, for use on a wound, sore, etc."
Except for that last part (about the wounds), I find many of these on laundry day. ;-) Feb 14, 2008
chained_bear "'Come, pledgets, ligatures, the leather-covered chain and my great double-handed retractor, if you please...'"
--Patrick O'Brian, The Ionian Mission, 251 Feb 14, 2008