▪ I. clinic, n.1 and a.1
(ˈklɪnɪk)
Also 7 -ick, 7– -ique.
[ad. L. clīnic-us, a. Gr. κλῑνικ-ός of or pertaining to a bed, f. κλῑ́νη a bed, f. κλῑ́νειν to cause to lean, slope, recline, etc.]
A. n.
1. One who is confined to bed by sickness or infirmity; a bedridden person, an indoor hospital patient.
| a 1626 Vaughan Direct. for Health (1633) 5 The childish doubts of cowardly Clinickes. 1651 Jer. Taylor Clerus Dom. 10 Confession of sins by the clinick or sick person. a 1711 Ken Edmund Poet. Wks. 1721 II. 123 Clinicks from gracious God find sure Relief. 1887 E. Berdoe St. Bernard's 213 You are free to roam at large..over the bodies of my clinics. |
2. Ch. Hist. One who deferred baptism until the death-bed, in the belief that there could be no atonement for sins committed after that sacrament.
| 1666 Sancroft Lex Ignea 41 We are all Clinicks in this point; would fain have a Baptism in Reserve, a wash for all our sins, when we cannot possibly commit any more. 1819 Pantologia III, Clinics..signified those who received baptism on their death-beds. |
† 3. A clinical physician. Obs.
| 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Clinic. Clinicus is also used for a physician—In regard, physicians are much conversant about the beds of the sick. Clinic is now seldom used but for a quack; or for an empirical nurse, who pretends to have learned the art of curing diseases by attending on the sick. |
B. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to the sick-bed; bed-ridden. clinic baptism: private baptism administered on the couch to sick or dying persons. clinic convert: one converted when sick or dying.
| 1626 Donne Serm. lxxviii. 802 Be thou therefore St. Cyprian's Peripatetique and not his Clinique-Christian, a walking and not a Bedrid Christian. 1672 Cave Prim. Chr. i. x. (1673) 294 Clinic baptism accounted less perfect. 1679 J. Goodman Penit. Pardoned ii. v. (1713) 236 The Clinick or Death-bed repentance. 1872 O. Shipley Gloss. Eccl. Terms 164 Aspersion was allowed of old in clinic baptism. |
2. = clinical 1.
| 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Clinic, Le Clerc observes, that Esculapius was the first who exercised the Clinic medicine. |
▪ II. clinic, n.2, clinique
[= F. clinique, ad. Gr. κλινική the clinic art or method.]
1. (See quot. 1882)
| 1843 Graves Syst. Clin. Med. i. 9. 1858 R. Christison in Life II. 273. 1869 tr. Trousseau's Clin. Med. II. 3 The clinic is the copestone of medical study. 1882 Syd. Soc. Lex., Clinic, the teaching of medicine or surgery at the bedside of a sick person, or the class accompanying the teacher. |
2. [After F. clinique, G. klinik.] a. A private hospital or medical institution to which patients are recommended by individual doctors. b. Formerly, an institution attached to a hospital or medical school at which patients received treatment free of cost or at reduced fees. Now esp. a hospital department devoted to a particular group of diseases, etc., usu. with defining epithet, as diabetic clinic, fracture clinic, etc.; also, a centre or other institution at which specialized treatment, diagnosis, or advice is available, as child guidance clinic, dental clinic, etc.
| 1889 Lancet 22 June 1283/2 Two new hospitals have just been opened in Moscow. One of these is a lying-in clinic attached to the University. 1892 Cosmopolitan XIII. 766/1 Clinics that are held by the professors of diseases of the eye. 1895 Daily News 18 June 6/2 The Council of State in St. Petersburg is busy with the project of a medical institute for women... After completing their studies the students will have to practice for one to three years in womens' clinics or similar hospitals. 1902 Lancet 25 Jan. 235/1 Dr. Mendes has put together a number of interesting observations which he has made in his clinic. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 14 July 2/1 The clinic opens at nine on every school-day and also on Saturday with examination of cases. 1922 Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 875/1 The many specialized clinics—prenatal, ‘baby’, dental, venereal disease, psychiatric etc. 1951 ‘M. Innes’ Operation Pax 207 ‘What is a clinic?’.. ‘I think it's becoming a fashionable word for a grand sort of nursing home—the sort that has one special line.’ 1952 Oxf. Jun. Encycl. X. 183/1 There has gradually grown up the practice of dealing with special types of patients in properly equipped clinics or centres; women during pregnancy, for example, are seen at ante-natal clinics, while small children and babies are examined at special children's clinics. 1961 Brit. Med. Dict. 318/2 Patients who have been in hospital may attend clinics for after-treatment. |
3. transf. An institution, class, conference, etc., for instruction in or the study of a particular subject; a seminar. Chiefly U.S.
| 1919 British Manufacturer Nov. 30/2 In order to solve this difficult problem in economic diagnosis, we need a clinic just as the doctor does. 1948 N.Y. Herald Tribune 10 June 33/7 Creation of a management–labor ‘Joint Productivity Clinic’, aimed at increasing industrial output. 1951 College English Jan. 232 A ‘composition clinic’ has been set up by the college of liberal arts department of English of Wayne University... Once the student is enrolled there, his writing is diagnosed and he is given whatever treatment he needs. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 13 Jan. 38/2 Five regional clinics for football coaches. |
▪ III. clinic, a.2 Min. rare.
(ˈklɪnɪk)
[app. taken from the common stem of monoclinic, triclinic, f. Gr. κλίν-ειν to bend.]
Oblique.
| 1879 Le Conte Elem. Geol. 204 Syenite would differ from diorite in the form of the feldspar which in the former is orthic (orthoclase) and in the latter clinic (plagioclase). |