atony

American  

[at-n-ee] / ˈæt n i /

Also atonia

noun

1. Pathology. lack of tone or energy; muscular weakness, especially in a contractile organ.

2. Phonetics. lack of stress accent.

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atony British  

/ ˈætənɪ /

noun

1. pathol lack of normal tone or tension, as in muscles; abnormal relaxation of a muscle

2. phonetics lack of stress or accent on a syllable or word

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Etymology

Origin of atony

1685–95; < Late Latin atonia < Greek, derivative of átonos unaccented, languid, literally, toneless. See a- ⁶, tone

Example Sentences

Sufferers from chronic constipation receive assurances that by the use of these "remedies" the anemia will be corrected, nutrition and digestion restored, atony of the liver and intestines overcome, yellow complexion and morbid feeling disappear.

From Intestinal Ills Chronic Constipation, Indigestion, Autogenetic Poisons, Diarrhea, Piles, Etc. Also Auto-Infection, Auto-Intoxication, Anemia, Emaciation, Etc. Due to Proctitis and Colitis by Jamison, Alcinous B. (Alcinous Burton)

The patient is unable to empty the bladder, and the condition of atony gets increasingly worse.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 1 "Bisharin" to "Bohea" by Various

He did not deny that the kind of atony to which his monotonous life subjected him, made it necessary that he should be somewhat galvanised by the excitement of travel.

From The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 4, July, 1851 by Various

They advertised his articles in mysterious terms which roused curiosity: and his first effort was in fact like a stone falling into a duck-pond in the atony of the little town.

From Jean-Christophe, Volume I by Cannan, Gilbert

Scepticism, which makes us, instead of slow to believe, unbelieving, and instead of the eyes proposes to purge the light, becomes nonsense and the most fearful philosophical impotence and atony.

From Hesperus or Forty-Five Dog-Post-Days Vol. I. A Biography by Jean Paul