Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
D and C

D and C

1 8.0
A surgery that opens the cervix and removes tissue from the womb
  • noun
  • /diː ənd siː/
  • Specialized
translation icon : dilatación y curetaje
  • After her diagnosis, she decided to undergo a D and C for further treatment and testing.

Examples

  • After making an appointment to have a D and C, my husband and I walked back home.

    Academic text (2007)

  • The D and C confirmed we had indeed been pregnant.

    Academic text (2007)

  • They did a D and C.

    Blog text (9)

  • I had another D and C to have the tissue tested for abnormalities.

    Blog text (29)

  • My menstrual cramps had grown so severe that even the doctor's shot of Demerol wasn't helping, so they had arranged for me to have something called a D and C.

    Academic text (2007)

  • My doctor explained that a D and C is often performed to remove tissue from the uterus.

  • The nurse scheduled the D and C procedure as part of her ongoing medical care.

Synonyms

dilation and curettage
vsD and C
  • Specialized
1 7.6

A procedure that widens the opening of the womb and scrapes its lining to remove tissue

is the short abbreviated form of the same procedure

Surface Forms

D and C singular
D and Cs plural

Morphology

D + and + C

“D and C” is an initialism for a medical procedure (dilation and curettage); the constituent elements 'D' and 'C' are letters/not lexical items, so even knowing 'and' provides no clue to a surgical meaning. This is a specialized abbreviation requiring prior medical knowledge, so a B1 learner who knows the visible constituents would not be able to derive the MWE’s meaning.

Etymology

The short form D and C stands for dilation, meaning widening, and curettage, meaning scraping. It comes from the literal steps doctors take: they widen the cervix, then gently scrape the inside of the womb to 'remove tissue', so D and C refers to that surgical procedure.