scalpel
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
- scalpellic adjective
Etymology
Origin of scalpel
1735–45; < Latin scalpellum, diminutive of scalprum tool for scraping or paring (derivative of scalpere to scratch); for formation castellum
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Akutagawa, recalled Kurosawa in his memoir, “goes into the depths of the human heart as if with a surgeon’s scalpel, laying bare its dark complexities and bizarre twists.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 17, 2025
But few legislators could handle a lawmaking scalpel like Burton.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 7, 2025
Chapman had applied gauze to Williams' mouth, not a scalpel.
From BBC • Mar. 24, 2025
But the more crucial cuts take a scalpel to its core duo’s addictively poisonous dynamic.
From Salon • May 2, 2024
She presses a button on the front to open it and takes out what looks like a white plastic cloth and a little metal scalpel.
From "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
