: a shallow vessel used by a bedridden person for urination or defecation
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebNursing notes show that Burrell was placed on a bedpan. Mollie Simon, ProPublica, 7 Sep. 2022 Much to the joy of The Otis’ realtor/agent, Nicholas Brown, Pennington says neither bedpan nor vomit bag art projects made their way into the Castleberry Hill building. Hunter Boyce, ajc, 25 July 2022 David Bravo has two days to learn the basics of nursing: taking a pulse, changing a bedpan — even practicing dressing other people’s bodies by putting socks on a mannequin. Erin Alberty, The Salt Lake Tribune, 11 Feb. 2022 Would people drink apple juice if it was served in a brand-new bedpan?New York Times, 27 Dec. 2021 The curriculum covers the practical aspects of working in a nursing home: bed-making, catheter care, using a bedpan and transferring residents from a wheelchair to a bed. Sarah Varney, The Enquirer, 18 Jan. 2022 That all of it — the ancient text, the washed dish, the emptied bedpan — manifests love and death. Bonnie Tsui, New York Times, 9 Sep. 2021 In the late 18th century, more than half of the population of the city of Williamsburg was Black, burdened with the firewood chopping, bedpan emptying, and farming that kept the capital of the colony of Virginia humming.National Geographic, 26 Sep. 2020 Changing bedpans and lifting armrests and holding shoulders, checking charts, slipping little baggies over the tips of thermometers, inserting I.V. needles. David Means, The New Yorker, 25 May 2020 See More
Word History
First Known Use
1678, in the meaning defined above
Medical Definition
bedpan
noun
bed·pan ˈbed-ˌpan
: a shallow vessel used by a bedridden person for urination or defecation