Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a tonic manner; specifically, in pathology, continuously; without alternating relaxation.

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

  • adverb in a tonic manner

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Do you know that Atlantis is tec-tonically unstable?

    The Magic May Return Niven, Larry 1981

  • If, as is sometimes the case, the difficulty proceeds from a relaxation of the diaphragm, with general sagging down of the thoracic and abdominal viscera, so as to draw upon the trachea, then treat the whole trunk tonically, using the B D current.

    A Newly Discovered System of Electrical Medication Daniel Clark

  • Force must not be used, but steady firm pressure against the tonically contracted cricopharyngeus is made, while at the same time the distal end of the esophagoscope is lifted by the left thumb.

    Bronchoscopy and Esophagoscopy A Manual of Peroral Endoscopy and Laryngeal Surgery Chevalier Jackson 1911

  • It is too proud, too austere, too true, and too tonically cruel to appeal to mandarins.

    Books and Persons Being Comments on a Past Epoch 1908-1911 Arnold Bennett 1899

  • The measure of light and dark when mixed is tonically the same as the gray of the gradation — but its attraction is weakened.

    Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judgment of Pictures Henry Rankin Poore 1899

  • The Bookstore, fondest of my father's resorts, though I remember no more of its public identity than that it further enriched the brave depth of Broadway, was overwhelmingly and irresistibly English, as not less tonically English was our principal host there, with whom we had moreover, my father and

    A Small Boy and Others Henry James 1879

  • The air, in truth, all the rest of that splendid day, must have been the key to the promptly-produced intensity of one's relation to every aspect of the charming episode; the light, cool, keen air of those delightful high places, in Italy, that tonically correct the ardours of July, and which at our actual altitude could but affect me as the very breath of the grand local legend.

    Italian Hours Henry James 1879

  • Or to speak tonically, the melody and accompaniment after being written nearly all the way in the key of Do, suddenly diverge to the key of Fa, and there close.

    A Popular History of the Art of Music From the Earliest Times Until the Present 1874

  • Bioavailability of NO has been proposed to be tonically involved in the restraint of central sympathetic outflow

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Yrsa Bergmann Sverrisdóttir et al. 2010

  • During fixation, neurons near the front edge-the foveal zone-are tonically active.

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009

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