Stent
name, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A slender tube inserted into a blood vessel, a ureter or the oesophagus in order to provide support and to prevent disease-induced closure.
"Tiny metal sleeves placed in arteries to keep blood flowing, stents have become such a popular quick fix for clogged coronary vessels that Americans will receive more than 1.5 million of them this year."
- 2 An allotted portion; a stint. archaic
"The hundred-and-oneth stitch was my stent, and it's done. I'm not ever going to take the hundred and twoth. I've decided."
- 3 a slender tube inserted inside a tubular body part (as a blood vessel) to provide support during and after surgical anastomosis wordnet
- 1 To insert a stent or tube into a blood vessel.
- 2 To keep within limits; to restrain; to cause to stop, or cease; to stint. archaic
"Yet n'ould she stent / Her bitter railing and foule revilement."
- 3 To stint; to stop; to cease. archaic
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"Tiny metal sleeves placed in arteries to keep blood flowing, stents have become such a popular quick fix for clogged coronary vessels that Americans will receive more than 1.5 million of them this year."
Etymology
Unclear. Possibly named after dentist Charles Stent. The English surname is a variant of Stein.
See stint.
Related phrases
More for "stent"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.