Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Something that depresses or is used to depress.
  • noun An instrument used to depress a part.
  • noun Any of various muscles that serve to draw down a part of the body.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who presses down; an oppressor.
  • noun Pl. depressores (dep-re-sō′ rēz). In anatomy, a muscle that depresses or draws down: as, the depressor anguli oris (the muscle which draws down the corner of the mouth).
  • noun 3. In surgery, an instrument like a curved spatula used for reducing or pushing a protruding part into place.
  • noun In electricity, a device, consisting of a generator or other source of electromotive force, placed in the return circuit of an electric system and having the function of keeping the potential in that circuit approximately the same as that of the ground.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who, or that which, presses down; an oppressor.
  • noun (Anat.) A muscle that depresses or tends to draw down a part.
  • noun (Physiol.) a nerve which lowers the activity of an organ; as, the depressor nerve of the heart.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Anything that depresses
  • noun An instrument used to push something out of the way during an examination
  • noun Any of several muscles that pull down
  • noun Anything that lowers blood pressure

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any skeletal muscle that draws a body part down
  • noun a device used by physician to press a part down or aside
  • noun any nerve whose activity tends to reduce the activity or tone of the body part it serves

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Alcohol is a shape-shifter, a mood-lifter, an undresser, and a depressor.

    Network Awesome: Alcohol and Charles Bukowski Network Awesome 2011

  • Personal preferences aside, electing a Democrat has turned out to be a traffic boost for the Right-oriented sites featured and a traffic depressor for the Left-oriented sites featured.

    Looking a little more into blog readership declines. - Moe_Lane’s blog - RedState 2009

  • In December 2003, when Saddam Hussein was pulled out of his spider hole, the U.S. military offered as evidence of his capture a photograph showing the bearded dictator with a tongue depressor in his mouth.

    Debatable 'Evidence' Richard B. Woodward 2011

  • A doctor from India shoving a tongue depressor down my throat trying to acquire a sample, eventually giving up as my gag reflex was just too strong.

    Strep Christian Bell 2011

  • It's a close-up of Ellen's face taped to a tongue depressor.

    On the blueline: One game to go, vs. Canada, gold at stake 2010

  • It took me all of two minutes to figure out I could engage the muzzle depressor with a careful finger and pull the trigger, firing nails a good fifty yards.

    Freud’s Blind Spot Elisa Albert 2010

  • “One tongue depressor at a time, Theresa,” he encourages me, wiping away my tears.

    Chicken Soup for the Soul: Think Positive Jack Canfield 2010

  • Bob Munden stuck some balloons up on a pepper-popper a flat metal target shaped something like a tongue depressor shoved through a small rubber ball at two hundred yards and then used a couple guns to pop them.

    Archive 2010-03-01 Steve Perry 2010

  • The helpless little guy was dropped into the beaker and held “underwater” with what appeared to be a tongue depressor.

    With Love and Laughter, John Ritter Amy Yasbeck 2010

  • The nail gun had a safety release in the form of a depressor on the muzzle.

    Freud’s Blind Spot Elisa Albert 2010

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