Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
↩️ To move away 🩺 To open tissue
to draw back

to draw back

1 9.9
To pull tissue or skin to the side to hold a wound open during surgery
  • phrasal verb
  • /drɔː bæk/
  • Specialized
translation icon : retractar
  • During the procedure, the nurse helped draw back the incision to ensure proper visibility.
  • drew back his hand
  • drew back his arm

Examples

  • Before stitching the wound, the doctor must draw back the edges carefully for a better view.

  • A slave drew back the chair and then adjusted it once the doctor had seated himself.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • She went to the window and drew back the curtain just a little so that no one in the street would notice.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Olivio drew back the binding strip by strip as if unwrapping a mummy.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • The surgeon will draw back the skin to access the underlying tissue during the operation.

Synonyms

to pull back
vsto draw back
162 3.4

To move yourself and things backward from a place, person, or situation

is a surgical action that keeps wound or organ edges open during operations
to retract
vsto draw back
25 5.6

To pull something back so it is no longer sticking out

is a surgical action that keeps wound or organ edges open during operations

How Wide

to spread
664 1.6
to draw back
  • Specialized
1 9.9
to separate
297 1.9
to part
241 2.9

Surface Forms

draw back infinitive
drawing back present participle
draws back third person singular
drew back past
drawn back past participle

Morphology

draw + back

The surgical sense is a straightforward compositional use of 'draw' (to pull) + 'back' (toward or to a rear/away position): together they mean to pull something back or away to expose an area. This motion-oriented, verb+particle pattern is cross-linguistically common and would be predictable to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.

Etymology

Draw back in the operating room comes from the literal act of using a tool to pull skin or tissue to one side so the doctor can see. That's why it means 'to hold open' the edges of a cut during an operation.