Tourniquet

//ˈtɝ.nɪ.kɪt// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A tightly-compressed bandage used to stop bleeding by stopping the flow of blood through a large artery in a limb.

    "His forefathers had been, as a rule, professional men—physicians and lawyers; his grandfather died under the walls of Chapultepec Castle while twisting a tourniquet for a cursing dragoon; an uncle remained indefinitely at Malvern Hill;[…]."

  2. 2
    bandage that stops the flow of blood from an artery by applying pressure wordnet
  3. 3
    Any of several similar methods of clamping components into position.
  4. 4
    A turnstile. obsolete
Verb
  1. 1
    To apply a tourniquet bandage.

Synonyms

All synonyms
ace bandageadhesive tapeapplicationbandband aidband-aid

Example

More examples

"He applied a tourniquet before slitting his wrists."

Etymology

From French tourniquet, from tourner (“to turn”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.