Meaning

3 senses

  1. (transitive)To strike; to hit; to knock; to give a blow to.

    Solid bodies, if they be very softly percussed, give no sound.

  2. (intransitive)To impact.

    Falling on the roof of the caravan, the hailstones percussed noisily.

  3. (transitive)To attempt to pinpoint the location or other quality of something by tapping on an overlying surface.

    The doctor percussed his chest to determine whether he had pneumonia.

    Percussing a patient's spleen is best done while he is on his back.

More definitions
  • strike or tap firmly

Origin

From Latin percussus, past participle of percutiō (“to strike, to beat”), from per (“throu

From Latin percussus, past participle of percutiō (“to strike, to beat”), from per (“through”) + quatiō (“to shake, to strike”).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

percusses, percussing, percussed, percussed
Base formpercuss · to percuss
3rd person singularpercusses
Present participlepercussing
Past simplepercussed
Past participlepercussed

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theypercuss
he, she, itpercusses

Past simpleLesson

all personspercussed

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave percussed
he, she, ithas percussed

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill percuss

Word family

4 related words
Relatedpercussantpercussionpercussivepercussor

Lessons for this word

3 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
perceptualperchC2percolatorpercussionperditionperegrine
percuss — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto