sawbones

sawbones
   This was a slang expression unknown to Mr Pickwick, according to Charles Dickens. When Sam Weller told him that there were ‘a couple of sawbones downstairs’ he was obliged to ask: ‘What’s a sawbones?’ Dickens adds that he was ‘not quite certain whether it was a live animal, or something to eat’. Weller tells him that a sawbones is a surgeon. In Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain has Muff Potter tell a young doctor: ‘Now the cussed thing’s ready, Sawbones.’ As for Sam Weller, when an old lady faints he says to a boy ‘Now depitty sawbones, bring out the wollatilly!’ By this he is to understand that he has been appointed deputy doctor and should produce some volatile salts, or smelling salts.

A dictionary of epithets and terms of address . . 2015.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Sawbones — Saw bones , n. A nickname for a surgeon. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • sawbones — surgeon, 1837, slang; see SAW (Cf. saw) (v.) + BONE (Cf. bone) …   Etymology dictionary

  • sawbones — [sô′bōnz΄] n. Slang a doctor; esp., a surgeon …   English World dictionary

  • Sawbones — Slang name for a surgeon and, in particular, an orthopaedic surgeon (who may have sawed bones on the battlefield in days gone by). The term sawbones has been in use for many years, as in: What, don t you know what a Sawbones is, Sir, enquired Mr …   Medical dictionary

  • sawbones — n. a doctor. (Folksy. Referring to someone who amputates limbs.) □ Call he sawbones. This is an emergency. □ Is there a sawbones in this town? …   Dictionary of American slang and colloquial expressions

  • sawbones — noun (plural sawbones or sawboneses) Date: 1837 slang physician, surgeon …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • sawbones — /saw bohnz /, n., pl. sawbones, sawboneses. (used with a sing. v.) Slang. a surgeon or physician. [1830 40; SAW1 + BONE + s3] * * * …   Universalium

  • sawbones — noun A surgeon …   Wiktionary

  • sawbones — Synonyms and related words: Doctor of Medicine, GP, MD, Md, allopath, allopathist, attending physician, coroner, country doctor, croaker, doc, doctor, family doctor, general practitioner, house physician, intern, leech, medical, medical attendant …   Moby Thesaurus

  • Sawbones — surgeon …   Dictionary of Australian slang

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