a. Path. [f. Gr. κλόνος violent confused motion, turmoil (esp. of battle) + -IC. Cf. F. clonique.] Applied to spasms in which violent muscular contractions and relaxations take place in rapid succession; opposed to tonic.
1849. H. Mayo, Pop. Superstit. (1851), 81. Clonic spasm, for instance, the contortions and convulsive struggles of epilepsy.
1871. Hammond, Dis. Nervous Syst., 39. Tonic spasm, followed by clonic convulsion.
1883. T. L. Brunton, in Nature, 22 March, 486/1. The convulsions are not continuous, but are clonic.
