mercury thermometer
1
4.4
- noun
- /ˈmɜrkjʊri θərˈmɑːmɪtər/
- Archaic
:
termómetro de mercurio
- To ensure accurate readings, always shake down your mercury thermometer before using it.
Examples
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Before digital options, many homes relied on a mercury thermometer for measuring fevers.
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I'm all for a digital readout because I can't see the incremental markings on the sides of a mercury thermometer.
Blog text (9) -
In older days, a common spill might have been caused by a broken mercury thermometer.
Blog text (26) -
I was also a nurse until I got too sick to work anymore and had many accidents with mercury thermometers and even exposure.
Blog text (7) -
His fever registered 103 degrees on Rachel's old mercury thermometer.
Fiction book (1990) -
Flynn Scientific won't sell mercury thermometers to schools, yet the new fluorescent lightbulbs sold in the local hardware store and drugstore contain mercury!
Blog text (7) -
That's true, mosh, but that doesn't make the output of some you-beaut climate model the equivalent of some ice-encrusted guy patiently reading an old mercury thermometer day after day...
Blog text (25) -
The doctor used a mercury thermometer to check my temperature during the examination.
Synonyms
74
3.0
A tool that tells you how hot or cold something is
A glass tube containing mercury that rises to show temperature
A glass tube with mercury that measures body temperature
How Safe
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward noun–noun composition: a 'thermometer' that contains or uses 'mercury'. The meaning is directly derivable from the constituent words and matches a common cross-linguistic naming pattern for instruments, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily understand it.
Etymology
Mercury thermometer is named after the shiny liquid mercury inside a thin glass tube that rises when it is warm and falls when it is cold. Because the moving column of mercury shows how hot or cold something is, the device came to be used to 'measure temperature'.