[ad. L. auscultātiōn-em, f. auscultāt-: see prec. and -ATION.]
1. The action of listening or hearkening.
1634. F. Hickes, Lucian, 3 (T.). You shall heare matter not to be discommended, but what deserves attentive auscultation.
1836. H. Taylor, Statesman, xxxi. 239. He who can listen with real attention to every thing that is said to him, has a great gift of auscultation.
1842. Mrs. Browning, Grk. Chr. Poets (1863), 64. The suggestive name of acroases—auscultations, things intended to be heard.
2. Med. The action of listening, with ear or stethoscope, to the sound of the movement of heart, lungs, or other organs, in order to judge their condition of health or disease.
1833. J. Forbes, Cycl. Pract. Med., I. 234. The whole doctrine of auscultation as a means of diagnosis.
1872. T. G. Thomas, Dis. Women, 767. Auscultation reveals a loud basic systolic cardiac murmur.
