central line

noun

medical

: an IV line that is inserted into a large vein (such as the superior vena cava) typically in the neck or near the heart for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes (as to administer medicines or fluids or withdraw blood)

Central lines transfuse IV fluids faster than standard IVs and are used to deliver medicines to sicker patients, usually in the intensive care unit or operating room.

—Tim Friend

Examples of central line in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

After efforts to insert a central line also failed, officials called off the execution. — Louis Casiano, FOXNews.com, 21 May 2026

In February 2025, Zgola arrived at the cancer center, got a central line inserted and donated her stem cells. — Wendy Grossman Kantor, PEOPLE, 27 Nov. 2025

Metal connections can be laid down on semiconductor wafers with exquisite precision, and they can easily be formed into networks that branch out from central lines, the same way capillaries branch out from arteries. — Clint Schow, IEEE Spectrum, 31 Aug. 2010

No nurse had been responsible for the procedures involved in this care, including intubation, chest tubes, umbilical central lines, lumbar punctures, ventricular taps, and more. — Dawn Zuidgeest-Craft, STAT, 24 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1983, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for central line

• alkaline
• andesine
• anodyne
• anticline
• arginine
• asinine
• benzidine
• borderline
• byzantine
• calamine
• caroline
• centerline

Medical Definition

central line

noun

: an IV line that is inserted into a large vein (as the superior vena cava) typically in the neck or near the heart for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes (as to administer medicines or fluids or withdraw blood)

I had trained in the intensive care unit. I could start a central line, intubate a patient in respiratory failure, and insert a pacemaker.

—Margaret Seton, The New England Journal of Medicine