medical

comparative more medical · superlative most medical

1. not comparableusuallyOf or pertaining to the practice of medicine.

   medical doctor; medical student

   2 more examples

   Do you have any medical experience?

   The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.

   2013 June 21, Karen McVeigh, “US rules human genes can't be patented”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 10

2. not comparableusuallyIntended to have a therapeutic effect; medicinal.

   medical marijuana; medical cannabis; medical treatment

   Synonyms: curative, therapeutic

3. not comparableusuallyRequiring medical treatment.

   A costly medical condition can bankrupt you if it doesn't kill you first.

4. not comparableusuallyPertaining to the state of one's health.

   medical examination; medical exemption; medical history; medical record; medical diagnosis

5. not comparableusuallyPertaining to or requiring treatment by other than surgical means.

   medical ward

   Synonyms: nonsurgical, nonoperative · Antonyms: surgical, operative

6. not comparableusuallyPertaining to medication specifically (that is, pharmacotherapy), rather than to other aspects of medicine and surgery.

   surgical therapy only when medical therapy fails

   1 more example

   medical oncology, radiation oncology, and surgical oncology

plural medicals

1. informalA medical examination.

   You'll have to get a medical before you apply for that job.

   2 more examples

   After completing a medical and the requisite paperwork on Tuesday to seal the deal, Di María said: “I am absolutely delighted to be joining Manchester United. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Spain and there were a lot of clubs interested in me, but United is the only club that I would have left Real Madrid for.

   2014 August 26, Jamie Jackson, “Ángel di María says Manchester United were the ‘only club’ after Real”, in The Guardian

   All UK train drivers must undergo a medical every three years up to the age of 54, and annually from then on.

   2021 November 17, “Network News: Age-related medical requirements”, in RAIL, number 944, page 9

2. archaicA medical practitioner.

   We medicals have a better way than that. When we dislike a friend of ours, we dissect him.

   1884, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Body Snatcher

   1 more example

   There was the school of simplicity, socialism, and universal love, the head of which was a Quixotic Diogenes called Mêh-tsz or Meccius (fifth century b.c.); the school of denominationalists, or pedantic adherents to the letter of absolutely defined principles; the legists, or partisans of a system of repression and punishment (on the Plehve-Pobyedonóschtschoff basis); the astrologists, or believers in occult influences; the medicals or elixirists; the sensualists; and many others, recalling to our minds the various divisions of Greek philosophy at the same period.

   1905, Edward Harper Parker, “Confucianism”, in China and Religion, New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton and Company, pages 67–68