Wiktionary
n. A fictional futuristic handheld device used for scanning, which may be specialized for medical, technical(,) or other purposes.
Wikipedia
In the fictional Star Trek universe, a tricorder is a multifunction hand-held device used for sensor scanning, data analysis, and recording data.
Three primary variants of the tricorder appear in Star Trek, issued by the fictional organization Starfleet. The standard tricorder is a general-purpose device used primarily to scout unfamiliar areas, make detailed examination of living things, and record and review technical data. The medical tricorder is used by doctors to help diagnose diseases and collect bodily information about a patient; the key difference between this and a standard tricorder is a detachable hand-held high-resolution scanner stored in a compartment of the tricorder when not in use. The engineering tricorder is fine-tuned for starship engineering purposes. There are also many other lesser-used varieties of special-use tricorders. The word "tricorder" is an abbreviation of the device's full name, the "TRI-function reCORDER", referring to the device's primary functions; Sensing, Computing and Recording.
Usage examples of "tricorder".
A quick scan with the medical tricorder told her that her bioreadings were back to normal.
The lad, armed with no more than a tricorder and a knife, padded carefully after the Klingons, and Brahms moved fast enough to keep up with them.
Plus, your uniforms, communicators, and tricorders are contaminated and they must be destroyed.
The Klingon gathered up his weapons and gear, sticking as many disruptors, phasers, and tricorders as he could carry in his sash and belt.
They backed away from the rapidly brightening entrance along with everyone else, Giotto quickly reassembling his phaser while George worked on realigning his tricorder to scan the freshly opened stash ahead of them.
If they had tricorders, they would soon investigate the corridors, too.
Crusher, Ogawa, and the chubby Tellarite doctor, Pelagof, opened their medical tricorders, while Data stepped to the ops console.
The three medical workers cautiously followed, tricorders leveled and blinking.
They were holding tricorders, making no attempt to hide their scans of the area.
Now the enhanced weapons master could see in energy realms even tricorders were unable to detect.
Tharia was now screaming as he unholstered his phaser, his dead tricorder long since dropped to the rocky ground.
While she grumbled curses at her tricorder, Keller came up behind her and prodded the same formation, a tall cylindrical column sticking up out of the alabastrine mesh.
Behind him, Chekov's voice rose: "What kind of a tricorder setting do you call that?
As the monorail pulled out of the Academy station, heading into San Francisco and parts unknown, along with Elma and the tricorder, Jayme’s foot slid off the brake box.
Brass eighteenth-century orreries, extants, and telescopes abutted twentieth-century binnacles and Starfleet-issue tricorders.