Definitions

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

  • noun The forming of fibers.
  • noun Fine, rapid twitching of individual muscle fibers with little or no movement of the muscle as a whole.
  • noun Rapid uncoordinated twitching movements that replace the normal rhythmic contraction of the heart and may cause a lack of circulation and pulse.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state of being fibrillar or fibrillated.
  • noun The formation of fibrils.

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

  • noun The state of being reduced to fibers.

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

  • noun The rapid, irregular, and unsynchronized contraction of the muscle fibers of the heart.

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

  • noun act or process of forming fibrils
  • noun muscular twitching involving individual muscle fibers acting without coordination

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From New Latin fibrilla, diminutive of Latin fibra, "fiber," in reference to the muscle strands of the heart.

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Examples

  • However, for larger and faster gradients applied to the thorax, induced cardiac fibrillation is a real and serious danger.

    Sir Peter Mansfield - Autobiography 2004

  • Regulators and Sanofi-Aventis emphasized that physicians should never prescribe Multaq to patients with longer-term fibrillation.

    NYT > Home Page By DUFF WILSON 2011

  • Regulators and Sanofi-Aventis emphasized that physicians should never prescribe Multaq to patients with longer-term fibrillation.

    NYT > Home Page By DUFF WILSON 2011

  • Regulators and Sanofi-Aventis emphasized that physicians should never prescribe Multaq to patients with longer-term fibrillation.

    NYT > Home Page By DUFF WILSON 2011

  • Since I’m boring you with my afib chronicles, I should give you an update: I’m still in fibrillation but feeling much better thanks to being on a beta blocker, Toprol, which slows my heart rate and makes stairs once again no big deal.

    The Afib Chronicle « BuzzMachine 2006

  • Ventricular fibrillation occurs when the heart's electrical circuits begin firing randomly, so the heart quivers and can't pump blood.

    Dozens of people perform CPR to save one heart attack victim 2011

  • Ventricular fibrillation occurs when the heart's electrical circuits begin firing randomly, so the heart quivers and can't pump blood.

    Dozens of people perform CPR to save heart attack victim 2011

  • SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The heart condition we're talking about is atrial fibrillation, which is a relatively common problem.

    CNN Transcript Apr 29, 2008 2008

  • That is called fibrillation, and it is fatal unless promptly treated.

    The Telltale Heart (Test) 2007

  • A tiny clot lodging there would have sent his heart into a brief burst of the ineffectual rhythm known as fibrillation, before it stopped altogether.

    Back From the Dead 2007

Comments

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  • working with textiles made phyllis so excited, she was often in a state of fibrillation...

    November 1, 2007