Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AUS-CUL-TA'TION, n. [L. from antiq. ause, Gr. ους, ουας, the ear, and cultus, from colo, to use or exercise.]

1. The act of listening, or hearkening to.
2. In medicine, a method of distinguishing diseases, particularly in the thorax, by observing the sounds in the part, generally by means of a tube applied to the surface. – Laennec.