under the knife

English

WOTD – 7 April 2024

Etymology

A patient under the knife during a United States Army mobile surgical team training exercise in Puerto Cortés, Honduras, in February 2014.

A reference to the situation of a patient lying on an operating table while a surgeon stands over them and operates using a surgical cutting tool (typically a scalpel).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌʌndə ðə ˈnaɪf/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌʌndəɹ ðə ˈnaɪf/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪf
• Hyphenation: un‧der the knife

Prepositional phrase

under the knife

1. (informal) Chiefly preceded by a form of go: undergoing a surgical procedure; into surgery.
   • 1964 April 24, “France: Operation Royal”, in Roy Alexander, editor, Time‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2009-08-26:

     Rumor that De Gaulle [i.e., Charles de Gaulle] was under the knife sped through Paris and the world the next morning. The staff at the Elysee Palace, De Gaulle's official residence, refused for hours either to confirm or deny the story; […] Finally, at 7:15 p.m., a bulletin signed by three doctors said that De Gaulle had been operated on that morning for "a disease of the prostate"— […]

   • 2006 August 19, Michael S. Schmidt, “After Shea, life diverges for two Mets”, in The New York Times‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-01-26:

     "I don't want to go under the knife again. I had 10 surgeries as a player and many more since," [Lenny] Dykstra said, speaking as though he still had his trademark wad of tobacco in his mouth.

Translations

undergoing a surgical procedure

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 開刀 / 开刀 (zh) (kāidāo)

• Danish: under kniven
• Dutch: onder het mes
• Finnish: leikkaukseen
• French: passer sur le billard (fr), sur le billard
• German: unters Messer, unter dem Messer (depending on the verb used)
• Irish: faoi scian
• Italian: sotto i ferri
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian: under kniven
• Spanish: bajo el cuchillo
• Swedish: under kniven
• Welsh: dan y gyllell

Further reading

• surgery on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Under the Knife (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “go under the knife, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “under the knife”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.