Definition of "hypodermic" []

• Of or relating to the layer just beneath the epidermis. (adjective)
• Relating to the hypodermis. (adjective)
• Injected beneath the skin. (adjective)
• A hypodermic injection. (noun)
• A hypodermic needle. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "There are broadly defined as the hypodermic theory (the media inject the message into the passive audience); and the uses and gratifications theory (in which the audience makes disparate use of different media products and constructs or decodes different meanings)."
• "He bridles his horses with opium, loads them down with purgative powders, and whips them through with castor oil, and for fear they will not travel fast enough he uses as a spur a delicately formed instrument known as the hypodermic syringe."
• "It was a small slim ivory toy -- just the instrument for a tired sufferer to give himself a "hypodermic" with."