stethoscope
[steth-uh-skohp]
- an instrument used in auscultation to convey sounds in the chest or other parts of the body to the ear of the examiner.
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Origin of stethoscope
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for stethoscope
Contemporary Examples
An Army doctor stepped over with a stethoscope and chastened the firing squad when he determined that the heart was still beating.
A smiling, wise-looking Black man with a stethoscope around his neck stared out from the cover.
Ben Carson Was a Role Model for Black Teens Until He Sold Out to the RightJoshua DuBois
March 16, 2014
A medic standing close to her wore both a stethoscope and a gas mask around her neck—she seemed to be in shock.
On a table in front of her sat a stethoscope, a notepad and a small flashlight.
Historical Examples
He touched the patient's wrist, then put a stethoscope to his chest.
Ten From InfinityPaul W. Fairman
He went through the locker room and got his stethoscope on the way to Ward Five.
Ten From InfinityPaul W. Fairman
A plainclothesman put a stethoscope on the questionable case.
The Pirates of ErsatzMurray Leinster
Without a word he got out his stethoscope and began to listen to me.
Once a WeekAlan Alexander Milne
Then, taking out his stethoscope, he made a rapid examination of his patient.
Once a WeekAlan Alexander Milne
stethoscope
- med an instrument for listening to the sounds made within the body, typically consisting of a hollow disc that transmits the sound through hollow tubes to earpieces
- Also called: obstetric stethoscope a narrow cylinder expanded at both ends to recieve and transmit fetal sounds
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Word Origin
C19: from French, from Greek stēthos breast + -scope
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
Word Origin and History for stethoscope
n.
1820, from French stéthoscope, coined 1819 by its inventor, French physician René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laënnec (1781-1826) from Greek stethos "chest, breast" + -scope. Greek stethos is perhaps related to sternon (see sternum); it meant "front of the chest," and was only rarely used of a woman's breasts, but in Modern Greek it became the preferred polite term.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
stethoscope
(stĕth′ə-skōp′)- Any of various instruments used for listening to sounds produced within the body.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
stethoscope
[(steth-uh-skohp)]
An instrument used in listening to internal body sounds. Most familiarly, physicians and nurses use it to listen to heart sounds.
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.