atony
Americannoun
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Pathology. lack of tone or energy; muscular weakness, especially in a contractile organ.
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Phonetics. lack of stress accent.
noun
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pathol lack of normal tone or tension, as in muscles; abnormal relaxation of a muscle
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phonetics lack of stress or accent on a syllable or word
Etymology
Origin of atony
1685–95; < Late Latin atonia < Greek, derivative of átonos unaccented, languid, literally, toneless. See a- 6, tone
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Dr. Twining also mentions these same properties, recommends it as a tonic and aperient of great benefit in atony of the digestive organs and expresses surprise that the Europeans make no use of it.
From The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines by Thomas, Jerome Beers
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
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
Your disease is a deficiency of blood, a constitutional atony.
From Laboulaye's Fairy Book by Booth, Mary L. (Mary Louise)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
