percussor

Noun

percussor (plural percussors)

1. A small hammer-like tool that a physician uses to provide a light blow to a body part.
   • The shaft on which the percussor is fastened is so adjusted that the spring, while expending its force, throws the hammer a little beyond the line of centre, so that the blow is struck lightly and quickly, and the hammer rebounds very much as it strikes and rebounds from the string of a piano when...1890, George Frederick Shrady, Thomas Lathrop Stedman, Medical Record - Volume 38, page 66
   • A mechanical percussor is ordered to assist with secretion clearnace in a patient receiving CPT.2009, James R. Sills, The Comprehensive Respiratory Therapist Exam Review, →ISBN
2. A physician who provides light blow to a body part as a diagnostic technique.
   • When he has reached this stage, the percussor is an expert, and his ability to produce deceptive effects is his best guarantee that he will not be himself deceived.1898, The Clinical Journal - Volume 12, page 310
   • A percussor must be in a mental attitude toward the examined subject that is twofold in character; he knows, or should know, beforehand that there will be certain phenomena of sound that he is sure to discover, and that there are certain other phenomena that it is possible to discover, and that...1901, The Hahnemannian Monthly - Volume 36, page 213
3. A hammerstone or similar tool used for smashing, or chipping.
   • Bi-polar percussion involves the placement of the objective piece on an anvil stone and subsequently striking it with a percussor, as one would crack a nut.1978, Newsletter: 1978-84 - Issue 4, page 232
   • The striking-platform features and the kind of percussor used are critical variables in determining the bulbar characteristics on flakes; the variable that is most critical depends on the hardness of the percussor, the angle of the striking platform, the amount of force applied, and the relative...1985, Mark G. Plew, James C. Woods, Max G. Pavesic, Stone Tool Analysis: Essays in Honor of Don E. Crabtree, page 294
4. A part of a device that is intended to impart a striking action.
   • In a charge torpedo, a spring-pressed percussor recessed at one end, a guide tube in which said percussor works, a plummet adapted to lie in said recess and be held therein by the guide tube, a trigger adapted to engage said percussor and hold the same against the action of its spring, a pull cord...1919, Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office
   • Where air drilling can be used, for example, the air percussor appears to be gaining acceptance.1961, Transactions of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, Volume 219