pulse
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biology
business
chemistry
cooking
electrical-engineering
electricity
electromagnetism
electronics
energy
engineering
entertainment
food
human-sciences
lifestyle
linguistics
medicine
music
natural-sciences
phonology
physical-sciences
physics
physiology
prosody
sciences
transport
Etymology: From Late Middle English pulse, Middle English pous, pouse (“regular beat of arteries, pulse; heartbeat; place on the body where a pulse is detectable; beat (of a musical instrument); energy, vitality”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman puls, pous, pus, and Middle French pouls, poulz, pous [and other forms], Old French pous, pulz (“regular beat of arteries; place on the body where a pulse is detectable”) (modern French pouls), and from their etymon Latin pulsus (“beat, impulse, pulse, stroke; regular beat of arteries or the heart”), from pellō (“to drive, impel, propel, push; to banish, eject, expel; to set in motion; to strike”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to beat, strike; to drive; to push, thrust”)) + -sus (a variant of -tus (suffix forming action nouns from verbs)).
Inflected forms:
form: pulses
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: pulses
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: pulsing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: pulsed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: pulsed
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A normally regular beat felt when arteries near the skin (for example, at the neck or wrist) are depressed, caused by the heart pumping blood through them; the qualitative nature of this beat.
pos: noun
examples: Her pulse was thready and weak.
gloss: The rate of this beat as an indication of a person's health.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
metonymically
examples: Her pulse was 110 at 8 a.m.
[A] Pulſe which is ſlow and large denotes ſufficient remains of ſtrength, tenſion, and thickneſs of the fibres of the heart and arteries, and a viſcid and tenacious blood. All unequal Pulſes are very bad, ſince they denote that there is neither a due influx of the ſpirits, nor a proper and equal mixture of the blood; but particularly ſuch Pulſes always prognoſticate unlucky events, when they are weak.
[M]y experience is that men may enjoy better health, do more work, have clearer brains, a steadier pulse, and go on to old age better without alcohol than with.
gloss: A beat or throb; also, a repeated sequence of such beats or throbs.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: When the ear receives any ſimple ſound, it is ſtruck by a ſingle pulſe of the air, which makes the ear-drum and the other membranous parts vibrate according to the nature and ſpecies of the ſtroke.
I roved at random through the town, / [...] / And caught once more the distant shout, / The measured pulse of racing oars / Among the willows; [...]
gloss: The focus of energy or vigour of an activity, place, or thing; also, the feeling of bustle, busyness, or energy in a place; the heartbeat.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: You can really feel the pulse of the city in this district.
gloss: An (increased) amount of a substance (such as a drug or an isotopic label) given over a short time.
pos: noun
gloss: A setting on a food processor which causes it to work in a series of short bursts rather than continuously, in order to break up ingredients without liquidizing them; also, a use of this setting.
pos: noun
tags: attributive
gloss: The beat or tactus of a piece of music or verse; also, a repeated sequence of such beats.
pos: noun
gloss: A brief burst of electromagnetic energy, such as light, radio waves, etc.
pos: noun
examples: A thin ruby crystal is illuminated by two successive intense short pulses of coherent light, t seconds apart, obtained from a ruby-laser source. As expected, the crystal will transmit the two pulses t seconds apart. But then one observes a curious additional feature: a third light pulse emerges spontaneously from the crystal about t seconds following the second pulse, and still relatively intense.
gloss: Synonym of autosoliton (“a stable solitary localized structure that arises in nonlinear spatially extended dissipative systems due to mechanisms of self-organization”).
pos: noun
gloss: A brief increase in the strength of an electrical signal; an impulse.
pos: noun
tags: also
gloss: A timed, coordinated connection, when multiple public transportation vehicles are at a hub at the same time so that passengers can flexibly connect between them.
pos: noun
gloss: To emit or impel (something) in pulses or waves.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
transitive
examples: Though a light of love she swimmeth, / Zoned with utterless desire, / And the air of her swift coming / Through thy hot veins pulseth fire.
Rapidly rotating dead stars, pulsars are so named because as they spin, they release beams of electromagnetic radiation across space that appear to pulse like celestial lighthouses.
gloss: To give to (something, especially a cell culture) an (increased) amount of a substance, such as a drug or an isotopic label, over a short time.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To operate a food processor on (some ingredient) in short bursts, to break it up without liquidizing it.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To apply an electric current or signal that varies in strength to (something).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To manipulate (an electric current, electromagnetic wave, etc.) so that it is emitted in pulses.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To expand and contract repeatedly, like an artery when blood is flowing though it, or the heart; to beat, to throb, to vibrate, to pulsate.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
literary
examples: Hot blood pulsed through my veins as I grew angrier.
The streets were dark, and all that could be seen was light pulsing from the disco.
As pulseth in thy northern skies / Th' Aurora—so, in ecstasies, / Through starry maze, my spirit flies; [...]
None dare awake the deep affright / That pulseth in the heart of night, [...]
Come, descend to lower station! / We are of the same creation, / And the life that all sustains / Pulseth in our purple veins: [...]
O Heart Divine, that pulsest through all space, / Why dost Thou seem so far away and cold? / We miss the pressure of the arms that fold; / We long to hear Thy voice, to see Thy face. [From the New Orleans Times-Democrat.]
gloss: Of an activity, place, or thing: to bustle with energy and liveliness; to pulsate.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
examples: There is a dangerous censoriousness pulsing through American society. In small towns and big cities alike, would-be commissars are fighting, in the name of a distinct minority of Americans, to stifle open discussion and impose their views on the community at large. Dissenters, when they speak out, are hounded, ostracized and sometimes even forced from their jobs.
The emotion had pulsed from the outset, the Ukraine players emerging from the tunnel with blue and yellow flags around their shoulders; the rendition of their anthem seeing eyes well up.
Related words: impulse
repulse
pulsion
pulsive
arrhythmia
blood pressure
heartbeat
meter
tempo
pulsate
pulsating
pulsation
pulsative
pulsator
pulsatory
pulser
Derived words: aeropulse
afterpulse
anthropulse
apulse
a pussy and a pulse
attopulse
chirped-pulse amplification
electromagnetic pulse
electropulse
finger on the pulse
have one's finger on the pulse
have one's fingers on the pulse
interpulse
intrapulse
macropulse
micropulse
monopulse
multipulse
nanopulse
nonpulse
nuclear magnetic pulse
nuclear-pulse rocket
overpulse
oxygen pulse
photopulse
postpulse
prepulse
pulsable
pulsate
pulsebeat
pulse decay time
pulse demodulator
pulse detonation engine
pulse diagnosis
pulse dialing
pulse dialling
pulseful
pulse glass
pulsejet
pulse jet
pulseless
pulselike
pulse-like
pulse modulation
pulse modulator
pulse ox
pulse oximeter
pulse oximetric
pulse oximetry
pulse-pounding
pulse pressure
pulse repetition time
pulsetrain
pulse wave
pulsewidth
pulsific
pulsimeter
pulsometer
quadripulse
subpulse
underpulse
wavepulse
pulsed
pulser
pulsing
Translations: