Nil By Mouth

maurice | 16:50 Sat 16th Nov 2013 | Phrases & Sayings

21 Answers

Is this a stanard medical phrase (for eating & drinking nothing before a surgical operation)? I'm not familiar with it, and as far as I can see it is hardly findable in dictionaries or even Google!

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dannyk13

Best Answer

Nil By Mouth is usually written above the bed of a patient due to have an operation.

16:52 Sat 16th Nov 2013

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factor-fiction

Yes. I think there was a film called that

dannyk13

Nil By Mouth is usually written above the bed of a patient due to have an operation.

bhg481

They stick a sign on your bed when you're due for an operation.

EcclesCake

I've certainly had a sign hanging over my hospital bed advising all that I was to receive nil by mouth.

factor-fiction

I think it can apply to other categories of patients too, not just pre-op patients

bibblebub

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Nil+per+os

Baldric

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nil_by_Mouth

maurice

Question Author

Thank you all: that was quick! I'm only used to the French & German expressions, which are even shorter ("à jeune" & "nuechtern"). Perhaps not necessarily desirable to have lain in British hospitals for 50 years: the experience is bad enough anywhere!

shoota

just going to walk the dog.

No that is not a euphemism - I am going to walk the dog....

shoota

(PS That ^^^ could be on the wrong thread.....)

Graham-W

Not to be mistaken with "a jaune".
Until you are yellow?

2sp_

Iit's starting to change to Nothing by Mouth in some hospital wards as some staff didn't know what Nil meant.

bibblebub

nil as in Crystal Palace nil?

FredPuli43

First time I saw it , it was over a garden shed. The wife was a nurse, and I suspect the husband used to retreat to the shed for a quiet smoke and a drink !

maurice

Question Author

Graham W: .and not "jeune" (young) either; this one's got a circumflex!