doc-in-a-box
American medical slang for a small, standalone urgent-care clinic — the kind of walk-in facility that has proliferated in strip malls and high-street locations across the US, offering quick medical consultations without an appointment.
Definitions
American medical slang for a small, standalone urgent-care clinic — the kind of walk-in facility that has proliferated in strip malls and high-street locations across the US, offering quick medical consultations without an appointment. The 'box' refers to the boxy, prefab or retail-unit feel of many such clinics, and the tone is affectionate but slightly dismissive, suggesting a place for minor ailments rather than serious care. As urgent care has boomed, doc-in-a-box has become a widely recognised shorthand.
She didn't want to wait six hours at the ER for a sprained ankle, so she drove to the doc-in-a-box on the main road instead.
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(medical, slang) A small medical clinic.
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(slang) An ambulance.
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Slang for an ambulance, used in British English. The name is starkly descriptive — associating the vehicle with the emergencies it attends. Sits in the same register as other blunt emergency-service slang, often used by paramedics, hospital staff, or people comfortable with dark humor about medical situations.
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(slang) An ambulance.
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Dark slang for an ambulance, leaning into the morbid reality that emergency vehicles sometimes transport people who don't make it. It's the kind of grimly humorous nickname that emergency services workers, police, and people with a dark sense of humor might use. Not exactly something you'd say to comfort someone whose family member just got loaded into one, but as gallows humor goes, it communicates the high stakes of emergency medicine with blunt efficiency.