triage
noun
tri·age
| \ trē-ˈäzh
, ˈtrē-ˌäzh\
, ˈtrē-ˌäzh\
Definition of triage
1a
: the sorting of and allocation of treatment to patients and especially battle and disaster victims according to a system of priorities designed to maximize the number of survivors
b
: the sorting of patients (as in an emergency room) according to the urgency of their need for care
2
: the assigning of priority order to projects on the basis of where funds and other resources can be best used, are most needed, or are most likely to achieve success
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Examples of triage in a Sentence
Nurses do triage in the emergency room.
Recent Examples on the Web
The doctors who scrambled to rescue and triage survivors in 2015 look back in search of lessons. — Alex Hutchinson, Outside Online, "The Devastating Aftermath of an Avalanche on Everest," 6 July 2018 Off-duty police, firefighters, nurses and paramedics began to triage patients on site. — David Montero, latimes.com, "Memories of a massacre in Vegas: The aftermath of the nation's deadliest shooting," 20 May 2018 The site also asks for age and gender in order to further triage medical conditions that are most likely contributing to symptoms. — Alice Park, Time, "Should You Diagnose Yourself Online? Here’s What Doctors Think," 10 Apr. 2018 Edwards, who now lives in Cypress, Calif., with her husband and 19-month-old son, spends most of her workweek helping to triage mental health patients in the ER and visiting those who are admitted to the hospital. — NBC News, "Psychiatrist stays close to home and true to her childhood promise," 4 Apr. 2018 The increase in the District reflects what health officials are reporting from coast to coast, including California, where some hospitals are setting up tents to triage the overflow of patients. — Rachel Chason, Washington Post, "A fierce flu season pummels Washington region," 7 Mar. 2018 For such a system to work, the city needs to triage requests, quickly fulfilling the easy ones while devoting more time to those that legitimately need legal review or that require multiple departments to gather documents. — Mark Naymik, cleveland.com, "Metroparks CEO gets raise, new contract and converts vacation days to cash: Mark Naymik," 8 Jan. 2018 The Center’s national clients include corporations, museums, nonprofits, and private collectors, and the response team is trained to triage a variety of situations, most notably flood and fire. — Jane Borden, Vanities, "In Southern California, Even the Art Has a Fire Evacuation Plan," 20 Dec. 2017 Instead of manually placing calls, today’s telephone operator is likely juggling multiple lines, performing triage on incoming calls in a call center or other multi-line phone operation. — Kate Lopaze, USA TODAY, "Career advice: Should you still consider becoming a telephone operator?," 1 Oct. 2017These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'triage.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for triage
triage
noun
English Language Learners Definition of triage
medical
: the process of deciding which patients should be treated first based on how sick or seriously injured they are
See the full definition for triage in the English Language Learners Dictionary
triage
noun
tri·age
| \ trē-ˈäzh
, ˈtrē-ˌ
\
, ˈtrē-ˌ
\
Medical Definition of triage
1
: the sorting of and allocation of treatment to patients and especially battle and disaster victims according to a system of priorities designed to maximize the number of survivors
2
: the sorting of patients (as in an emergency room) according to the urgency of their need for care