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Percussion   /pərkˈəʃən/   Listen
noun
Percussion  n.  
1.
The act of percussing, or striking one body against another; forcible collision, esp. such as gives a sound or report.
2.
Hence: The effect of violent collision; vibratory shock; impression of sound on the ear. "The thunderlike percussion of thy sounds."
3.
(Med.) The act of tapping or striking the surface of the body in order to learn the condition of the parts beneath by the sound emitted or the sensation imparted to the fingers. Percussion is said to be immediate if the blow is directly upon the body; if some intervening substance, as a pleximeter, is, used, it is called mediate.
Center of percussion. See under Center.
Percussion bullet, a bullet containing a substance which is exploded by percussion; an explosive bullet.
Percussion cap, a small copper cap or cup, containing fulminating powder, and used with a percussion lock to explode gunpowder.
Percussion fuze. See under Fuze.
Percussion lock, the lock of a gun that is fired by percussion upon fulminating powder.
Percussion match, a match which ignites by percussion.
Percussion powder, powder so composed as to ignite by slight percussion; fulminating powder.
Percussion sieve, Percussion table, a machine for sorting ores by agitation in running water.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Percussion" Quotes from Famous Books



... knew their temper better than he. With steady hand, made strong by sudden hope, the old gunner seized a priming-wire and picked the cartridge of one of the quarter guns; then he took from his pocket a percussion cap, fixed it in its place, and set back the hammer of the ...
— Sanders' Union Fourth Reader • Charles W. Sanders

... to above in the ascending current, or the small oblique currents that we consider as opposing by a shock the propagation of the sonorous undulations. A shock given to the surface of a liquid will form circles around the centre of percussion, even when the liquid is agitated. Several kinds of undulations may cross each other in water, as in air, without being disturbed in their propagation: little movements may, as it were, ride over each other, and the real cause of the less intensity ...
— Equinoctial Regions of America V2 • Alexander von Humboldt

... curtain behind to protect his neck, a light-grey tunic belted at the waist, and a pair of strong canvas trousers. He had also purchased an old-fashioned double-barrelled fowling-piece, muzzle-loading and with percussion locks. ...
— Blown to Bits - or, The Lonely Man of Rakata • Robert Michael Ballantyne

... nucleus, nucleolus; heart, pole axis, bull's eye; nave, navel; umbilicus, backbone, marrow, pith; vertebra, vertebral column; hotbed; concentration &c. (convergence) 290; centralization; symmetry. center of gravity, center of pressure, center of percussion, center of oscillation, center of buoyancy &c.; metacenter[obs3]. V. be central &c. adj.; converge &c. 290. render central, centralize, concentrate; bring to a focus. Adj. central, centrical[obs3]; middle &c. 68; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... Sun, stands on their pictorial rolls, as the symbol of the Great Spirit; and no important rite or ceremony is undertaken without an offering of tobacco. This weed is lit with the sacred element, generated anew on each occasion, from percussion. To light and to put out this fire, is the symbolic language for the opening and closing of every important civil or religious public transaction, and it is the most sacred rite known to them. It ...
— Incentives to the Study of the Ancient Period of American History • Henry R. Schoolcraft


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