saccade
Americannoun
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the act of checking a horse quickly with a single strong pull of the reins.
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Ophthalmology. the series of small, jerky movements of the eyes when changing focus from one point to another.
noun
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the movement of the eye when it makes a sudden change of fixation, as in reading
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a sudden check given to a horse
Etymology
Origin of saccade
1720–30; < French saccade jerk, jolt, originally, movement of a horseman who abruptly pulls the reins, equivalent to Middle French saqu ( er ) to pull violently (N dialectal variant of Old French sachier, ultimately derivative of sac sack 1, hence presumably with sense “withdraw from a sack”) + -ade -ade 1
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.
About 30% of the time it automatically shrinks the saccade over a familiar run of words, skipping past those it can predict.
From The Guardian • Apr. 8, 2017
The rapid movement of the eyes used to locate and direct the fovea onto visual stimuli is called a saccade.
From Textbooks • Jun. 19, 2013
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.
