Etymology * (verb): From French palper. * (noun): From New Latin palpus (“a feeler”). * Both ultimately from Latin palpō (“to stroke, touch softly, feel”).
Below her formidable eyes her fangs are flanked by limb-like mouthparts: her palps, coloured a startling white like a quivering moustache.2015, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Time, Pan Books (2016), page 20:
Etymology * (verb): From French palper. * (noun): From New Latin palpus (“a feeler”). * Both ultimately from Latin palpō (“to stroke, touch softly, feel”).
1
To feel, to explore by touch.
It is not possible to examine a male patient without making him undress and actually palping him all over.1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 729:
palp
adj
Etymology * (verb): From French palper. * (noun): From New Latin palpus (“a feeler”). * Both ultimately from Latin palpō (“to stroke, touch softly, feel”).
Etymology * (verb): From French palper. * (noun): From New Latin palpus (“a feeler”). * Both ultimately from Latin palpō (“to stroke, touch softly, feel”).
1
A fleshy part of a fingertip.
He folded his razor neatly and with stroking palps of fingers felt the smooth skin.1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
The palps of her fingers itched, thickened, erected with the need to touch the bent head. Plunge into the dust-moted rough blackness of his hair, smooth back downward over the deep-brown nape of his neck.1964, K. B. Gilden, Hurry Sundown:
4 more examples
With the palp of a forefinger he squeezed moisture from his wiry blond eyebrows.1984, W. Boyd, Stars & Bars, i.i.11:
When Mariuchi caresses the plant, for example, sensuously emitting from the palps of her fingers, a siren song.1998, Renny Christopher, Linda Strom, Lisa Orr, Working Class Studies: 1 & 2, Feminist Press at CUNY, →ISBN, page 165:
He tested the blade against the palp of his thumb, then returned to the living room and decisively, scrape by scrape, cut away the hex sign, leaving a halo of ragged wood.2008, John Gardner, Mickelsson's Ghosts, New Directions Publishing, →ISBN, page 130:
The bag seethed in her hand, not unpleasantly, as computational monofilaments shifted and flowed under her touch until they cradled the palps of her fingers.2012, Sean Stewart, Star Wars: Dark Rendezvous, Random House, →ISBN: