Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or adapted for walking.
  • adjective Capable of walking; not bedridden.
  • adjective Designed for or available to patients who are not bedridden.
  • adjective Moving about; itinerant.
  • adjective Law Relating to that which can be changed or revoked, as a will during the life of the testator.
  • noun A covered place for walking, as in a cloister.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having the power or faculty of walking; formed or adapted for walking: as, an ambulatory animal.
  • Pertaining to a walk; happening or obtained during a walk.
  • Accustomed to move from place to place; not stationary: as, an ambulatory court.
  • In law, not fixed; capable of being altered: as, a will is ambulatory until the death of the testator; the return of a sheriff is ambulatory until it is filed.
  • In medicine:
  • Shifting; ambulant: applied to certain morbid affections when they skip or shift from one place to another.
  • Permitting the patient to be about: applied to typhoid fever when it does not compel the patient to take to his bed.
  • noun Any part of a building intended for walking, as the aisles of a church, particularly those surrounding the choir and apse, or the cloisters of a monastery; any portico or corridor.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to walking; having the faculty of walking; formed or fitted for walking.
  • adjective Accustomed to move from place to place; not stationary; movable.
  • adjective rare Pertaining to a walk.
  • adjective (Law) Not yet fixed legally, or settled past alteration; alterable.
  • noun (Arch.) A place to walk in, whether in the open air, as the gallery of a cloister, or within a building.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or adapted to walking
  • adjective comparable, medicine Able to walk about and not bedridden.
  • adjective medicine Performed on or involving an ambulatory patient or an outpatient.
  • noun The round walkway encircling the altar in many cathedrals.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective relating to or adapted for walking
  • adjective able to walk about
  • noun a covered walkway (as in a cloister)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

ambulate +‎ -ory

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Examples

  • At the apex of the ambulatory is the splendid late Gothic (15th c.) tabernacle (such larger medieval tabernacles, seperate from an altar, are called in German Sakramentshaus, "Sacrament House"):

    Catholic Bamberg: The Upper Parish Church 2009

  • Today, Children's Hospital also has five family resource centers in ambulatory care locations throughout our network.

    History of family-centered care at CHOP 2010

  • The entrance to the ambulatory from the Northern aisle:

    Catholic Bamberg: The Upper Parish Church 2009

  • The inspection sweep of the nine clinics didn't include other centers that perform more services than first-trimester abortions and are classified as ambulatory surgery centers.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com The Huffington Post News Editors 2012

  • The inspection sweep of the nine clinics didn't include other centers that perform more services than first-trimester abortions and are classified as ambulatory surgery centers.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com The Huffington Post News Editors 2012

  • IMEC recently showed off its prototype cardiac monitoring system that is shaped after an ECG necklace, targeting use as a device that offers long term ambulatory readings in order to obtain a clearer and more accurate picture of a patient's cardiac electrophysiological health.

    Ubergizmo 2009

  • Just like a portable Holter monitor, this new ECG necklace is meant to provide long term ambulatory readings to get a full picture of a patient's cardiac electrophysiological health, all while running on a set of batteries for up to seven days.

    Medgadget 2009

  • Lower extremity neuromotor function and short-term ambulatory potential following in utero myelomeningocele surgery.

    CHOP publications spina bifida 2010

  • If your doctor thinks this might be happening, he or she can ask you to monitor your blood pressure at home, or by using a machine called an ambulatory blood pressure monitor, which can take sample readings over a one-day period.

    The Doctor is In MD Travis L. Stork 2010

  • If your doctor thinks this might be happening, he or she can ask you to monitor your blood pressure at home, or by using a machine called an ambulatory blood pressure monitor, which can take sample readings over a one-day period.

    The Doctor is In MD Travis L. Stork 2010

Comments

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  • After a minor skiing accident my mother tried to express to everyone that she was fine by saying she was ambulatory. I told her it was probably a bad time to exercise her vocabulary. I suspect most everyone thought she was saying she needed an ambulance.

    January 30, 2007