depressor
(dɪˈprɛsə(r))
Also 7 -er, -our.
[a. L. dēpressor, agent-n. from dēprimĕre, dēpress- to press down, depress. In OF. dépresseur.]
1. One who or that which depresses (in various senses: see the verb).
| 1611 Cotgr., Abbaisseur, an abaser..depresser, humbler. 1621 Bp. R. Montagu Diatribæ 112 That..would haue raised it selfe against all depressors and detractors. a 1639 Wotton in Gutch Coll. Cur. I. 219 Those that rayse stand ever in..hazard to be thought..the fittest depressours. 1868 Bain, The causes of pain and the depressors of vitality. |
2. Anat. and Phys. a. A muscle which depresses or pulls down the part to which it is attached; also attrib. as depressor muscle. b. depressor nerve: a branch of the vagus, the stimulation of which lowers the pressure of the blood.
| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 741 Euery leuator or lifting muscle hath a depressor or sinking muscle. 1748 Hartley Observ. Man i. ii. 148 The Depressors of the lower Jaw. 1872 Huxley Phys. ix. 234 The lower [eye-] lid has no special depressor. 1875 H. C. Wood Therap. (1879) 132 The vagi and depressor nerves did not appear to be affected. |
3. Surg. An instrument for pressing down some part or organ.
| 1874 Knight Dict. Mech., Depressor (Surgery), an instrument like a curved spatula, used for reducing or pushing into place an obtruding part. Such are used in operations on the skull..and in couching a cataract. 1883 Syd. Soc. Lex., Tongue depressor, a flattened metallic plate for depressing the tongue, in order to see the throat. |