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View synonyms for percuss

percuss

[ per-kuhs ]

verb (used with object)

  1. Medicine/Medical. to strike or tap for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes.
  2. to strike (something) so as to shake or cause a shock to.


verb (used without object)

  1. Medicine/Medical. to strike the surface of a part of the body for diagnostic purposes.

percuss

/ pəˈkʌs /

verb

  1. to strike sharply, rapidly, or suddenly
  2. med to tap on (a body surface) with the fingertips or a special hammer to aid diagnosis or for therapeutic purposes
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Derived Forms

  • perˈcussor, noun
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Other Words From

  • unper·cussed adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of percuss1

1550–60; < Latin percussus, past participle of percutere to strike hard, beat, equivalent to per- per- + -cut ( ere ), combining form of quatere to shake ( quash ) + -tus past participle suffix, with tt > ss
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Word History and Origins

Origin of percuss1

C16: from Latin percutere, from per- through + quatere to shake
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Example Sentences

Touch: wood, iron, glass, steel, sometimes thrumming softly, sometimes percussing like a tight drum.

P waves percuss the rock like a drumstick, traveling quickly through incompressible material.

The doctor knelt at the bedside to perform the time-honored tradition of percussing the heart.

I percussed the abdomen and found an enormously enlarged and indurated spleen, reaching beyond the navel and pushing up the thoracic viscera.

This in my hands has been of great assistance in percussing the limits of the heart dullness.

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