Definitions

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

  • noun An often indirect effect, influence, or result that is produced by an event or action.
  • noun A recoil, rebounding, or reciprocal motion after impact.
  • noun A reflection, especially of sound.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In obstetrics, the impinging of the fetus upon the examining finger in the test for pregnancy known as ballottement.
  • noun In surgery, the force causing a contrafissure.
  • noun In med,., the disappearance of an eruption or of a tumor as a result of an external application.
  • noun The act of driving back; a rebounding or reflection; the throwing back of a moving body by another upon which it impinges; reverberation.
  • noun In music:
  • noun That tone in a Gregorian mode which is most frequently repeated; the dominant.
  • noun The reappearance of the subject and answer of a fugue in regular order after the general development with its episodes.
  • noun Any reiteration or repetition of a tone or chord.

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

  • noun The act of driving back, or the state of being driven back; reflection; reverberation.
  • noun (Mus.) Rapid reiteration of the same sound.
  • noun (Med.) The subsidence of a tumor or eruption by the action of a repellent.
  • noun (Obstetrics) In a vaginal examination, the act of imparting through the uterine wall with the finger a shock to the fetus, so that it bounds upward, and falls back again against the examining finger.

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

  • noun A consequence or ensuing result of some action.
  • noun The act of driving back, or the state of being driven back; reflection; reverberation.
  • noun music Rapid reiteration of the same sound.
  • noun medicine The subsidence of a tumour or eruption by the action of a repellent.
  • noun obstetrics In a vaginal examination, the act of imparting through the uterine wall with the finger a shock to the foetus, so that it bounds upward, and falls back again against the examining finger.

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

  • noun a movement back from an impact
  • noun a remote or indirect consequence of some action

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English repercussioun, from Old French repercussion, from Latin repercussiō, repercussiōn-, from repercussus, past participle of repercutere, to cause to rebound : re-, re- + percutere, to strike; see percuss.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin repercussio ("rebounding; repercussion"), from repercutio ("cause to rebound, reflect, strike against"), from re- + percutio ("beat, strike"), from per- ("thoroughly") + quatio ("shake").

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Examples

  • Even with products like tobacco or alcohol (whose demand is relatively more captive, hence very appreciated by Revenue admnistrations), the repercussion from the tax increase on the price for consumers is never absolute.

    Matthew Yglesias » Higher Taxes on Alcohol 2010

  • No, you will likely face serious repercussion from the sovereign of that nation.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Defamation by Government Still Political Question 2010

  • No, you will likely face serious repercussion from the sovereign of that nation.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Defamation by Government Still Political Question 2010

  • Another unpredictable repercussion is that the far political right will start to come to life the way it did when Clinton was President, only worse.

    Scripting News for 11/5/2006 « Scripting News Annex 2006

  • S. COHEN: Well, the word repercussion and participating in terrorism in this case is that you get away with it, because there is no real punishment here.

    CNN Transcript Aug 14, 2003 2003

  • S. COHEN: Well, the word repercussion and participating in terrorism in this case is that you get away with it, because there is no real punishment here.

    CNN Transcript Aug 14, 2003 2003

  • As we said before, we're not lawyers and we have no idea how this will be interpreted by a judge, but NVIDIA's counter-argument is interesting and could be a strong leverage, especially if it has short-term repercussion on Intel's integrated graphics, a key feature in the popular low-cost segment.

    Ubergizmo 2009

  • That, to me is the longer term repercussion of the accident and while I think that's worth something, I really don't know how much.

    The Tech Report: News 2009

  • When things are going on that have a strong vibration -- what foreign correspondents love to call a "repercussion" -- they cause a good deal of mind-quaking.

    Mince Pie Christopher Morley 1923

  • The principle of sympathetic vibration mentioned above also provides the explanation of that strange and little-known phenomenon called repercussion, by means of which any injury done to, or any mark made upon, the astral body in the course of its wanderings will be reproduced in the physical body.

    The Astral Plane Its Scenery, Inhabitants and Phenomena 1890

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