CLINICAL

(MEDICAL) [adjective] [not gradable] - (of medical work or teaching) relating to the examination and treatment of ill peopleClinical tests have so far failed to show the cause of the illness.The medical students will begin their clinical training next month.Richard works in the Department of Clinical Medicine.Clinical trials of the new drug may take five years.(figurative) We were going to paint our kitchen white, but we decided that would look too clinical (= too cold and plain, like a hospital).If someone suffers from clinical depression, they have a mental illness which causes feelings of sadness and hopelessness, changes in their sleeping and eating habits, a loss of interest in their usual activities, and pains which have no physical explanation.After a long period of poor health which was eventually diagnosed as clinical depression, she tried to commit suicide.A clinical thermometer is a device used for measuring the body temperature of a person or animal.See picture: Meters and gauges