thumps

Spasmodic contractions of the diaphragm, or hiccups, occasionally seen in animals.

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thumps 'thəmps n pl but sing in constr a dyspneic breathing that is marked by throbbing movements of the sides of the chest due to spasmodic contractions of the diaphragm analogous to those of hiccups in humans, is esp. common in young pigs, and is associated with nutritional anemia or the passage of larval ascarid worms through the lungs also a disease (as a nutritional anemia or verminous pneumonia) of young pigs of which thumps is a symptom

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(thumps) 1. a disease of swine caused by Ascaris larvae in the lungs. 2. a kind of singultus, or hiccup, of horses, due to spasm of the diaphragm.