tonus
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of tonus
1875–80; < New Latin, special use of Latin tonus < Greek tónos 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.
In the medical journal Acta Pædiatrica, Bodegård described the typical patient as “totally passive, immobile, lacks tonus, withdrawn, mute, unable to eat and drink, incontinent and not reacting to physical stimuli or pain.”
From The New Yorker • Mar. 27, 2017
The massaging action of the abdominal muscles needed to keep the internal organs in a state of tonus is provided by the leg thrash, which is controlled by muscles originating on the pelvis.
From Time Magazine Archive
It is not, however, sufficiently emphasized, or even generally realized, that when a patient is too weak to stand or even to hold up his head, his condition is generally one of extremely low tonus.
From Time Magazine Archive
Physiologists, especially those interested in the nervous system," read Dr. Henderson's proxy, "understand fully that posture, particularly the ability to stand erect, or to hold up one's head, is dependent upon tonus.
From Time Magazine Archive
And, of course, one should feel something if it is no more than the tonus of muscle against the mobile bones.
From Instinct by Martinez
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.
