Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Direct-current electricity, especially when produced chemically.
- noun Therapeutic application of direct-current electricity, especially the electric stimulation of nerves and muscle.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun That branch of the science of electricity which treats of electric currents more especially as arising from chemical action, as from the combination of metals with acids.
- noun In medicine, the application of an electric current from a number of cells: in distinction from
faradism or the use of a series of brief alternating currents from an induction-coil, and fromfranklinism or the charging from a frictional or Holtz machine.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Electricity excited by the mutual action of certain liquids and metals; dynamical electricity.
- noun The branch of physical science which treats of dynamical elecricity, or the properties and effects of electrical currents.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The
chemical generation ofelectricity . - noun The
therapeutic use of electricity.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the therapeutic application of electricity to the body (as in the treatment of various forms of paralysis)
- noun electricity produced by chemical action
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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This action was long called galvanism, after this observer, not, however, that he was absolutely the first to notice a fact of which he was but a re-discoverer -- Swammerdam as long ago as 1658 having observed such motions.
The Common Frog 1874
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Once he heard a lecture on the impossibility of applying steam navigation to the ocean; at another time he saw the principle of "galvanism" illustrated with a small battery, but the impracticability of its use for industrial purposes on account of the high cost of mercury was pointed out.
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English speakers borrowed the word as "galvanism" in 1797; the verb "galvanize" was introduced in 1802.
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On this occasion a man of great research in natural philosophy was with us, and, excited by this catastrophe, he entered on the explanation of a theory which he had formed on the subject of electricity and galvanism, which was at once new and astonishing to me.
Chapter 2 2010
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The power of electricity or of galvanism wasn't as important as their galvanizing aftereffects, the startling fact that these effects staged the human as a radical dis-placement in the world.
Introduction 2008
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Those who saw him felt drawn to him by that attraction of the moral nature which men of science are happily unable to analyze; they would detect in it some phenomenon of galvanism, or the current of I know not what fluid, and express our sentiments in a formula of ratios of oxygen and electricity.
The Purse 2007
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He even gave himself up, half amused by its bizarre eccentricities, to the influence of this moral galvanism; its phenomena, closely connected with his last thoughts, assured him that he was still alive.
The Magic Skin 2007
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Those who saw him felt drawn to him by that attraction of the moral nature which men of science are happily unable to analyze; they would detect in it some phenomenon of galvanism, or the current of I know not what fluid, and express our sentiments in a formula of ratios of oxygen and electricity.
The Purse 2007
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Perhaps a corpse would be re-animated; galvanism had given token of such things: perhaps the component parts of a creature might be manufactured, brought together, and endued with vital warmth.
Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus Mary Shelley 2004
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Perhaps a corpse would be re-animated; galvanism had given token of such things: perhaps the component parts of a creature might be manufactured, brought together, and endued with vital warmth.
Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus Mary Shelley 2004
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