Other forms: ventilators
A ventilator is a machine that breathes for a patient. On a ventilator, come off the ventilator, ventilator beds.
It pushes air in under pressure, which is the reverse of how lungs normally work, and that is why long use can damage them. Counting ventilator beds became the standard measure of hospital capacity during the pandemic. In building, a ventilator is an air vent.
1nounventilatorA machine that breathes for a patient.
“The patient was put on a ventilator because he couldn't breathe on his own.”
ventilator is a machine.
Ventilate plus -or, from Latin ventilare, to fan, from ventus, wind.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂weh₁-
Latin
ventilātus
English
ventilate
English, today
ventilator
From ventilate + or; cf. Latin ventilator. ventilate comes from Middle English -, borrowed from Latin ventilātus, past participle of ventilō.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA