prepped; prepping
: prepare
especially
: to prepare for an operation or examination
nurses prepped the patient
pre-exposure prophylaxis
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that PrEP, when used consistently, can reduce the risk of H.I.V. infection by up to 92 percent.—
Ginia Bellafante
Ginia BellafanteExamples of prep in a Sentence
Noun
Painting a room involves a lot of prep.
Verb
She spent all night prepping for the test.
The runners are prepping themselves for the race.
It took me about 20 minutes to prep the vegetables.
Recent Examples on the Web
Sara Netzley, EW.com, 24 Apr. 2025
For a taste of the South without hours of prep work.
—Abigail Wilt, Southern Living, 24 Apr. 2025
Tom Gliatto, People.com, 21 Apr. 2025
An anesthesiologist entered the room to prep the woman for surgery, then left.
—David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 19 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for prep
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Noun
And yeah, if that was Louise facing down a murderer and creating a character out of whole cloth with no prep?
—Sara Netzley, EW.com, 24 Apr. 2025
For a taste of the South without hours of prep work.
—Abigail Wilt, Southern Living, 24 Apr. 2025
Verb
This all called for greater vigilance in Jackson: the survivors were going to prep for a possible breach of the community’s defensive walls.
—Tom Gliatto, People.com, 21 Apr. 2025
An anesthesiologist entered the room to prep the woman for surgery, then left.
—David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 19 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for prep
Cite this Entry
“Prep.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prep. Accessed 3 May. 2025.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
prep
1 of 3 noun
: the act or an instance of preparing a patient for a surgical operation
the nurse had three preps to do
prep
2 of 3 transitive verb
prepped; prepping
: to prepare for a surgical operation or examination
prep the patient for an appendectomy
PrEP
3 of 3 abbreviation
pre-exposure prophylaxis
The introduction of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has shown significant promise in reducing the rate of HIV incidence. … Although nearly 1.2 million people could benefit from PrEP, AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC) estimates that ~130,000–135,000 individuals were actively on PrEP in late 2019—meaning <15% of individuals in need of PrEP had a current prescription.—Benedikt Pleuhs et al., AIDS Patient Care and STDs
Benedikt Pleuhs et al., AIDS Patient Care and STDsLove words? Need even more definitions?
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