Adjacent Words

Depressor definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DEPRESSOR, n.
1. He that presses down; an oppressor.
2. In anatomy, a muscle that depresses or draws down the part to which it is attached; as the depressor of the lower jaw, or of the eyeball. It is called also depriment or deprimens.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: any skeletal muscle that draws a body part down [syn: depressor, depressor muscle]
2: any nerve whose activity tends to reduce the activity or tone of the body part it serves [syn: depressor, depressor nerve]
3: a device used by physician to press a part down or aside

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Late Latin, from Latin deprimere Date: 1611 one that depresses: as a. a muscle that draws down a part — compare levator b. a device for pressing down or aside c. a nerve or nerve fiber that decreases the activity or the tone of the organ or the part it innervates

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 Anat. a (in full depressor muscle) a muscle that causes the lowering of some part of the body. b a nerve that lowers blood pressure. 2 Surgery an instrument for pressing down an organ etc. Etymology: L (as DEPRESSION)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Depressor De*press"or, n. 1. One who, or that which, presses down; an oppressor. 2. (Anat.) A muscle that depresses or tends to draw down a part. Depressor nerve (Physiol.), a nerve which lowers the activity of an organ; as, the depressor nerve of the heart.