Definition of "ballottement" []

• Medicine A palpatory technique for detecting or examining a floating object in the body, as: (noun)
• The use of a finger to push sharply against the uterus and detect the presence or position of a fetus by its return impact. (noun)
• Palpation of the abdominal wall while a kidney is being pushed sharply from the backside, used as a test for determining the presence of a floating kidney. (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.

• "The differential diagnosis is with a non displaced fracture of the ankle: edema, pain over the external lateral ligament, and look for ballottement of the ankle bone."
• "Cephalic ballottement was obtained in the large tumor."