prem
/prɛm
/noun
A premature baby: the only way they could see to keep prems alive at the time was by using pure oxygen...
- It is of supreme importance to provide the prem with human milk.
- My daughter was took bad in the night and they think the baby is going to be a prem.
- All four are happy and healthy despite their rocky start to life and are taking part in the Walk for Prems to raise money for the charity.
adjective
(Of a baby) premature.A nurse told how the prem babies became hypothermic during the critical half hour periods when the generators were switched off....
- There were many of us in those days who were born with brain damage, and since then they've controlled the oxygen flow and we have much less trouble with prem births.
- I know my way around a prem unit, having had six premature babies, but basically they fooled me.
Origin
1950s: abbreviation of premature.