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 went through the locker room and got his stethoscope on the way to Ward Five.
Ten From InfinityPaul W. Fairman
He touched the patient's wrist, then put a stethoscope to his chest.
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.