the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
n. A surgical instrument consisting of a slender knife, either straight or curved, generally used by introducing it beneath the part to be divided, and cutting towards the surface.
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
n. A small, narrow surgical knife, with a straight, convex, or concave edge, and a sharp or blunt point, used for making incisions and for other purposes.
Word Usage
"The first who applied bleeding as speedily as possible to a patient under apoplexy; the first who conceived the idea of plunging a bistoury into the bladder to extract the stone from it, and of closing up the wound; the first who found out the method of stopping gangrene in any part of the human frame, were undoubtedly men almost divine, and totally unlike the physicians of"