cursor
Americannoun
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Digital Technology. a movable, sometimes blinking, marker that indicates the position on a display screen where the next character entered from the keyboard will appear, or where user action is possible.
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a sliding object, as the lined glass on a slide rule, that can be set at any point on a scale.
noun
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the sliding part of a measuring instrument, esp a transparent sliding square on a slide rule
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any of various means, typically a flashing bar or underline, of identifying a particular position on a computer screen, such as the insertion point for text
Etymology
Origin of cursor
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English in the earlier sense “runner, courier,” from Latin: literally, “runner, runner in a race, messenger, footman,” equivalent to cur(rere) “to run” + -sor, variant of -tor; cursor def. 2 was first recorded in 1590–1600 and cursor def. 1 in 1965–70; course, -tor
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In the late 1990s, neurologist Philip Kennedy developed the first BCI to allow a severely paralyzed patient to move a computer cursor using their brain.
From MarketWatch
With the one finger he is able to move, he controls the on-screen cursor using a trackball.
From Barron's
The cursor flashes, waiting while I think what to say.
From Literature
Isadora hovered over a part of the screen where the cursor disappeared and reappeared as she moved it.
From Literature
When Noland awoke from the surgery which installed the device, he said he was initially able to control a cursor on a screen by thinking about wiggling his fingers.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
