Also 4 sirgirie, 4–6 surgerye, 4–7 surgerie, 6 sowrgerie, surregerie. [ad. OF. surgerie, contracted f. ser-, cirurgerie CHIRURGERY. (For another form of contraction cf. OF. surgie, whence MDu. surgie, OPg. surgia (beside mod.Pg. cirurgia), med.L. surgia.)]
1. The art or practice of treating injuries, deformities and other disorders by manual operation or instrumental appliances; surgical treatment.
13[?]. Sir Beues (A.), 3672. Boþe fysik and sirgirie Ȝhe hadde lerned of meisters grete.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 413. ln al this world ne was ther noon hym lik To speke of phisik and of Surgerye.
c. 1450. Mankind, 850, in Macro Plays, 32. Whyll a wond ys fresch, yt ys prowyd curabyll be surgery.
1505. in Marwick, Edinb. Guilds (1909), 59. That na … person … vse ony poyntis of saidis craftis of surregerie or barbour craft within this burgh bott gif [etc.].
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. ii. 64. And they [sc. our hands] are often tarr’d ouer, with the surgery of our sheepe. Ibid. (1604), Oth., II. iii. 260. Iago. What are you hurt Lieutenant? Cas. I, past all Surgery.
1667. Davenant & Dryden, Tempest, V. i. (1670), 77. Henceforward let your Surgery alone, for I had Rather he should dye, than you should cure his wound.
1777. Cook, Voy. Pacific, III. ix. (1784), II. 152. They perform cures in surgery, which our extensive knowledge … has not … enabled us to imitate.
1861. Flor. Nightingale, Nursing (ed. 2), 94. Surgery removes the bullet out of the limb, which is an obstruction to cure, but nature heals the wound.
1887. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 22 Jan., 166/2. Dental Surgery.
1897. W. Anderson, Surg. Treatm. Lupus, 2. A bold and skilful surgery is usually exercised in the one case, and only half-hearted measures in the other.
† b. Phr. (To take, go) to surgery, for or to surgical treatment; (to lie, be) at surgery, under surgical treatment, in the doctor’s hands. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VII. lv. (1495), r iv/1. They [that haue the stone] shall be take to surgery.
1535. Coverdale, Jer. xlvi. 11. In vayne shalt thou go to surgery, for thy wounde shall not be stopped.
1555. in Strype, Eccl. Mem. (1721), III. App. xlv. 137. How manye mens wyves and doughters in Flaunders lye at surgerye.
1565. Stapleton, trans. Bede’s Hist. Ch. Eng., 146. While he was at surgerie in curing he dyed.
1586. J. Hooker, Hist. Irel., in Holinshed, II. 93/1. Taking his waie to Downemore … where he laie at surgerie.
c. fig.
1628. Wither, Brit. Rememb., IV. 1428. God shend us from the harm Of such like Surgery.
1643. Milton, Divorce, II. xvii. Wks. 1851, IV. 109. A … creature,… to whose ease you cannot adde the tithe of one small atome, but by letting alone your unhelpfull surgery.
1845. Carlyle, Cromwell, v. (1871), II. 143. Terrible Surgery this: but is it Surgery and Judgment, or atrocious Murder merely?
1913. H. W. Clark, Hist. Engl. Nonconf., III. i. II. 69. Nonconformity had entered far too deeply into the nation’s life to be eradicated by the severest surgery of law.
2. The room or office, often in a general practitioner’s house, where patients are seen and medicine dispensed.
1846. Bentley’s Misc., June, 549. A small den [Dr. Faunce] called ‘the surgery.’
1862. Miss Braddon, Lady Audley, xxxix. The door of the little surgery was ajar…. The surgeon was standing at the mahogany counter, mixing a draught in a glass measure.
1872. L. P. Meredith, Teeth (1878), 252. In some localities, the dentists … crowd their surgeries together in the same building.
3. attrib.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Pref., Wks. (1653), 8. The fitting and furnishing their Surgerie Chests with medicines. Ibid., 19. Severall proportions or explainings … of Surgery provisions.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxxviii. He would abstract lozenges … from the surgery-drawers.
1872. Tennyson, In Childr. Hosp., i. Fresh from the surgery-schools of France.
1881. Instr. Census Clerks (1885), 31. Hospital and Surgery Officer.
