Definitions

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

  • noun A bluish discoloration of the skin and mucous membranes resulting from inadequate oxygenation of the blood.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In pathology, a blue or more or less livid color of the surface of the body, due to imperfect circulation and oxygenation of the blood; the blue jaundice of the ancients.

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

  • noun (Med.) A condition in which, from insufficient aëration of the blood, the surface of the body becomes blue. See cyanopathy.

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

  • noun pathology A blue discolouration of the skin due to the circulation of blood low in oxygen.

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

  • noun a bluish discoloration of the skin and mucous membranes; a sign that oxygen in the blood is dangerously diminished (as in carbon monoxide poisoning)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From New Latin. See cyanic.

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Examples

  • With too much deoxygenated blood in the arteries, the skin turns from pink to blue (cyanosis comes from the Greek kyanos, meaning dark blue).

    American Scientist Online 2009

  • With too much deoxygenated blood in the arteries, the skin turns from pink to blue (cyanosis comes from the Greek kyanos, meaning dark blue).

    American Scientist Online 2009

  • With too much deoxygenated blood in the arteries, the skin turns from pink to blue (cyanosis comes from the Greek kyanos, meaning dark blue).

    American Scientist Online 2009

  • Leasure noted Wesley was past the point of cyanosis, which is when the body turns blue because of a lack of oxygen in the blood.

    unknown title 2009

  • Maciak said when he arrived to take over from firefighters, Dziekanski had a condition known as cyanosis, a serious circulation problem that turns the skin blue and progresses from the extremities into the face and body.

    CTV News RSS Feed 2009

  • (For the medically inclined, this bluish coloring is called cyanosis and it occurs when a child becomes hypoxic because of the oxygen depletion that comes with pneumonia and the inability to breathe.) Salmon’s criticism characterized the idea as somewhere between “ineffectual” and “downright offensive”.

    Dr. Orin Levine: You Think Blue Jeans For Pneumonia Is Ridiculous? 2009

  • The infant had cyanosis, required urgent positive pressure pulmonary care, and was hospitalized for twenty – eight days.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Waco 2010

  • Today a paramedic, Allan Maciak, whose first aid training actually allows him to tell the difference between bruising and cyanosis, testified that police told him Robert Dziekanski had been Tasered once.

    Archive 2009-03-01 2009

  • In other cases, TAPVR is diagnosed in the first few months of life after a child demonstrates milder symptoms such as a heart murmur or cyanosis (blue tint to skin).

    Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return (TAPVR) 2010

  • The whoops bring with them paroxysms and cyanosis, which are the clinical terms for coughing fits so severe they cause the skin to turn blue.

    The Panic Virus Seth Mnookin 2011

Comments

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  • "She didn't look at Badri either. She read the monitors one by one, and then asked, "Indications of pleural involvement?"

    "Cyanosis and chills," the nurse said."

    Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, p 90

    May 25, 2010