Spasmodic

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Spasmodic \Spas"mod"ic\, a. [Gr. ?; ? a convulsion + ? likeness:
     cf. F. spasmotique.]
     1. (Med.) Of or pertaining to spasm; consisting in spasm;
        occuring in, or characterized by, spasms; as, a spasmodic
        asthma.
        [1913 Webster]


  
     2. Soon relaxed or exhausted; convulsive; intermittent; as,
        spasmodic zeal or industry.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Spasmodic croup} (Med.), an affection of childhood
        characterized by a stoppage of brathing developed suddenly
        and without fever, and produced by spasmodic contraction
        of the vocal cords. It is sometimes fatal. Called also
        {laryngismus stridulus}, and {childcrowing}.
  
     {Spasmodic stricture}, a stricture caused by muscular spasm
        without structural change. See {Organic stricture}, under
        {Organic}.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Spasmodic \Spas*mod"ic\, n. (Med.)
     A medicine for spasm.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  spasmodic
       adj 1: affected by involuntary jerky muscular contractions;
              resembling a spasm; "convulsive motions"; "his body
              made a spasmodic jerk"; "spastic movements" [syn: {convulsive},
               {spastic}]
       2: occurring in spells and often abruptly; "fitful bursts of
          energy"; "spasmodic rifle fire" [syn: {fitful}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  239 Moby Thesaurus words for "spasmodic":
     acute, adrift, afflictive, afloat, agonizing, aimless, alternating,
     amorphous, arrhythmic, atrocious, biting, broken, broken off,
     capricious, careening, casual, cataclysmic, catchy, changeable,
     changeful, changing, chopped-off, choppy, convulsive, cramping,
     cruel, cyclical, decousu, desultory, deviable, deviating,
     deviative, deviatory, different, disarticulated, disastrous,
     disconnected, discontinued, discontinuous, discrete, disjunct,
     disjunctive, disordered, disorderly, dispersed, disproportionate,
     distressing, divaricate, divergent, diversified, diversiform,
     dizzy, eccentric, eclamptic, episodic, erose, erratic,
     excruciating, fast and loose, fickle, fidgety, fitful, flickering,
     flighty, flitting, fluctuating, formless, freakish, frivolous,
     giddy, gnawing, gratuitous, grave, griping, guttering, halting,
     haphazard, hard, harrowing, harsh, herky-jerky, heteroclite,
     hit-or-miss, hurtful, hurting, immethodical, impetuous, impulsive,
     inchoate, incoherent, inconsistent, inconstant, indecisive,
     indiscriminate, infirm, intermittent, intermitting, interrupted,
     irregular, irresolute, irresponsible, jagged, jerking, jerky,
     jiggety, jumpy, lurching, mazy, meaningless, mercurial, misshapen,
     moody, motley, mutable, nonconformist, noncontinuous, nonlinear,
     nonsequential, nonserial, nonstandard, nonsymmetrical,
     nonsystematic, nonuniform, occasional, orderless, orgasmic,
     painful, parenthetic, paroxysmal, patchy, periodic, piercing,
     planless, pluralistic, poignant, promiscuous, pulsating, pungent,
     racking, ragged, rambling, random, restless, rough, roving,
     saltatory, scatterbrained, scrappy, seismic, senseless, severe,
     shapeless, sharp, shifting, shifty, shooting, shuffling, snatchy,
     spasmatic, spasmic, spasmodical, spastic, spineless, sporadic,
     spotty, stabbing, staggering, stinging, straggling, straggly,
     sudden, suspended, systemless, tormenting, torturous, twitchety,
     twitching, twitchy, unaccountable, unarranged, uncertain,
     unclassified, unconnected, uncontrolled, undependable, undirected,
     undisciplined, unequable, unequal, uneven, unfixed, ungraded,
     unjoined, unmethodical, unmetrical, unordered, unorganized,
     unorthodox, unpredictable, unregular, unreliable, unrestrained,
     unrhythmical, unsettled, unsorted, unstable, unstable as water,
     unstaid, unsteadfast, unsteady, unsuccessive, unsustained,
     unsymmetrical, unsystematic, ununiform, upheaving, vacillating,
     vagrant, vague, variable, variegated, variform, various, varying,
     veering, vellicative, vicissitudinary, vicissitudinous, volatile,
     wandering, wanton, wavering, wavery, wavy, wayward, whimsical,
     wishy-washy, wobbling, wobbly