Search the Dictionary

he priming in the pan of a flintlock musket without discharging the piece; hence, sudden, spasmodic effort that accomplishes nothing.

To pinch; to distress. Specifically, to cause pinching and spasmodic pain to the bowels of, as by the effects of certain purgative or indigestible substances. How inly sorrow gripes his soul. Shak.

A modified respiratory movement; a spasmodic inspiration, consisting of a sudden contraction of the diaphragm, accompanied with closure of the glottis, so that further entrance of air is prevented, while the impulse of the column of air entering and striking upon the closed glottis produces a sound, or hiccough. [Writt…

A spasmodic state of the glottis, giving rise to contraction or closure of the opening.

remarkable for its powerful and enduring odor. It is used in medicine as a stimulant antispasmodic. The term is also applied to secretions of various other animals, having a similar odor.

strong smell and acrid taste, and was formerly used in medicine as an emmenagogue and antispasmodic. Dunglison.

Any sudden and violent emotion; spasmodic passion or action; a convulsion; a fit. The returning paroxysms of diffidence and despair. South.

rdonic grin of a bloody ruffian. Burke. Sardonic grin or laugh, an old medical term for a spasmodic affection of the muscles of the face, giving it an appearance of laughter.

Spasmodic. [Obs.]

Of or pertaining to spasm; spasmodic; especially, pertaining to tonic spasm; tetanic.

Spasmodically.

A disturbance in the formation of sounds. It is due essentially to long-continued spasmodic contraction of the diaphragm, by which expiration is preented, and hence it may be considered as a spasmodic inspiration.

A convulsive motion, twitch, or spasm; a spasmodic effort. For she did speak in starts distractedly. Shak. Nature does nothing by starts and leaps, or in a hurry. L'Estrange.

By sudden fits or starts; spasmodically. Shak.

ed rather than localized contractions, and in always indicating an origin organic and not spasmodic.

A painful discharge of urine, drop by drop, produced by spasmodic muscular contraction.

A localized morbid contraction of any passage of the body. Cf. Organic stricture, and Spasmodic stricture, under Organic, and Spasmodic. Arbuthnot.

To hesitate or stumble in uttering words; to speak with spasmodic repetition or pauses; to stammer. Trembling, stuttering, calling for his confessor. Macaulay.

, such a motion of some of the muscles of the face; twitching; velication; -- called also spasmodic tic. Dunglison. Tic douloureux (. Etym: [F., fr. tic a knack, a twitching + douloureux painful.] (Med.) Neuralgia in the face; face ague. See under Face.

A painful spasmodic contraction of the vagina, often rendering copulation impossible.