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 Cloud amounts are about 10 percent lower over the southern side of the central line, favoring locations near Millinocket in Maine and Oromocto in New Brunswick. Jay Anderson, Discover Magazine, 21 Feb. 2024 In private equity hospitals, patients experienced a 27 percent increase in falls, a 38 percent increase in central-line bloodstream infections (despite placing 16 percent fewer central lines than control hospitals), and surgical site infections doubled. Beth Mole, Ars Technica, 17 Jan. 2024 In June, Shelby returned to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and had surgery to place a central line — a semi-permanent IV port in her chest. Brittany Trang, STAT, 13 Dec. 2023 That became the central line of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Stephanie Sengwe, Peoplemag, 30 Oct. 2023 Comments like this, which proliferated from conservatives during Biden’s Thursday news conference, hearken back to a central line of attack deployed by the Trump campaign during the 2020 presidential race. David M. Drucker, Washington Examiner, 25 Mar. 2021 She’s had many procedures to place a central line and a gastronomy tube to support her nutrition. Baltimore Sun, 30 Mar. 2023 Duration of the waggle run tells her hive mates how far away the food is, and the waggle run’s angle relative to the central line points the direction to the food source. Mindy Weisberger, CNN, 9 Mar. 2023 Twenty of those aircraft crossed the central line in the Taiwan Strait that has long been an unofficial buffer zone between the two sides, which separated during a civil war in 1949. Emily Yang Fujiyama, The Christian Science Monitor, 3 Feb. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'central line.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1983, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of central line was in 1983

Dictionary Entries Near central line

Cite this Entry

“Central line.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/central%20line. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

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
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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