/pʌls/, /pʌls/, [pəls]
OriginFrom 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)).
- 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.
“Her pulse was thready and weak.”
- broadly, metonymicallyThe rate of this beat as an indication of a person's health.
“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 ”
“[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.”
- figurativelyA beat or throb; also, a repeated sequence of such beats or throbs.
“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; [...]”
- figurativelyThe focus of energy or vigour of an activity, place, or thing; also, the feeling of bustle, busyness, or energy in a place; the heartbeat.
“You can really feel the pulse of the city in this district.”
- An (increased) amount of a substance (such as a drug or an isotopic label) given over a short time.
- attributiveA 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.
- The beat or tactus of a piece of music or verse; also, a repeated sequence of such beats.
- A brief burst of electromagnetic energy, such as light, radio waves, etc.
“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”
- Synonym of autosoliton (“a stable solitary localized structure that arises in nonlinear spatially extended dissipative systems due to mechanisms of self-organization”).
- alsoA brief increase in the strength of an electrical signal; an impulse.
- 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.
- uncountableAnnual leguminous plants (such as beans, lentils, and peas) yielding grains or seeds used as food for humans or animals; (countable) such a plant; a legume.
“Wild nuts, peas, vetch, a legume which had edible seed pods, and grasses were often combined with pulses like beans or lentils, the most commonly identified ingredient, and at times, wild mustard. To ”
- uncountableEdible grains or seeds from leguminous plants, especially in a mature, dry condition; (countable) a specific kind of such a grain or seed.
- also, figuratively, transitiveTo emit or impel (something) in pulses or waves.
“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.”
- transitiveTo 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.
- transitiveTo operate a food processor on (some ingredient) in short bursts, to break it up without liquidizing it.
- transitiveTo apply an electric current or signal that varies in strength to (something).
- transitiveTo manipulate (an electric current, electromagnetic wave, etc.) so that it is emitted in pulses.
- figuratively, intransitive, literaryTo expand and contract repeatedly, like an artery when blood is flowing though it, or the heart; to beat, to throb, to vibrate, to pulsate.
“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; [...]”
- figuratively, intransitiveOf an activity, place, or thing: to bustle with energy and liveliness; to pulsate.
“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 ”
“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.”
Formspulses(plural) · pulses(present, singular, third-person) · pulsing(participle, present) · pulsed(participle, past) · pulsed(past)