pulse

• POS: Noun, Verb (intransitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

pulse, n. [OE. puls, L. puls, pultis, a thick pap or pottage made of meal, pulse, etc. See Poultice, and cf. Pousse.].

 Leguminous plants, or their seeds, as beans, pease, etc.  [1913 Webster]
"If all the world
Should, in a pet of temperance, feed on pulse."  [1913 Webster]

pulse, n. [OE. pous, OF. pous, F. pouls, fr. L. pulsus (sc. venarum), the beating of the pulse, the pulse, from pellere, pulsum, to beat, strike; cf. Gr. to swing, shake, to shake. Cf. Appeal, Compel, Impel, Push.].

•  The beating or throbbing of the heart or blood vessels, especially of the arteries.  [1913 Webster]

  " In an artery the pulse is due to the expansion and contraction of the elastic walls of the artery by the action of the heart upon the column of blood in the arterial system. On the commencement of the diastole of the ventricle, the semilunar valves are closed, and the aorta recoils by its elasticity so as to force part of its contents into the vessels farther onwards. These, in turn, as they already contain a certain quantity of blood, expand, recover by an elastic recoil, and transmit the movement with diminished intensity. Thus a series of movements, gradually diminishing in intensity, pass along the arterial system (see the Note under Heart). For the sake of convenience, the radial artery at the wrist is generally chosen to detect the precise character of the pulse. The pulse rate varies with age, position, sex, stature, physical and psychical influences, etc."  [1913 Webster]
•  Any measured or regular beat; any short, quick motion, regularly repeated, as of a medium in the transmission of light, sound, etc.; oscillation; vibration; pulsation; impulse; beat; movement.  [1913 Webster]

  "The measured pulse of racing oars."  [1913 Webster]

  "When the ear receives any simple sound, it is struck by a single pulse of the air, which makes the eardrum and the other membranous parts vibrate according to the nature and species of the stroke."  [1913 Webster]

  "the pulse wave travels over the arterial system at the rate of about 29.5 feet in a second."  [1913 Webster]

pulse, v. i. 

 To beat, as the arteries; to move in pulses or beats; to pulsate; to throb.  Ray.  [1913 Webster]

pulse, v. t. [See Pulsate, Pulse a beating.].

 To drive by a pulsation; to cause to pulsate.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

pulse, n. & v.
--n.
1 a a rhythmical throbbing of the arteries as blood is propelled through them, esp. as felt in the wrists, temples, etc. b each successive beat of the arteries or heart.
2 a throb or thrill of life or emotion.
3 a latent feeling.
4 a single vibration of sound, electric current, light, etc., esp. as a signal.
5 a musical beat.
6 any regular or recurrent rhythm, e.g. of the stroke of oars.
--v.intr.
1 pulsate.
2 (foll. by out, in, etc.) transmit etc. by rhythmical beats.

Idiom

pulse code coding information in pulses. pulse code modulation a pulse modulation technique of representing a signal by a sequence of binary codes. pulse modulation a type of modulation in which pulses are varied to represent a signal.

Derivative

pulseless adj.

pulse, n. (as sing. or pl.)
1 the edible seeds of various leguminous plants, e.g. chick-peas, lentils, beans, etc.
2 the plant or plants producing this.

Etymology

ME f. OF pols f. L puls pultis porridge of meal etc.

THESAURUS

pulse

algae, alternate, arrhythmia, arsis, autophyte, bar beat, be here again, bean, beat, beating, bicker, bout, bracken, brown algae, circle, circuit, climber, come again, come and go, come around, come round, come round again, come up again, conferva, confervoid, course, creeper, cycle, dance, diastole, diatom, downbeat, drum, drumming, echo pulse, fern, flap, flick, flicker, flip, flit, flitter, flop, flutter, fruits and vegetables, fucus, fungus, go pitapat, grapevine, green algae, gulfweed, gutter, hammering, heartbeat, heartthrob, herb, heterophyte, intermit, ivy, kelp, legume, lentil, liana, lichen, liverwort, mold, moss, mushroom, offbeat, oscillate, palpitate, palpitating, palpitation, pant, parasite, parasitic plant, pea, perthophyte, phytoplankton, pitapat, pitter-patter, planktonic algae, plant families, pounding, puffball, pulsate, pulsating, pulsation, pulsing, rat-a-tat, rataplan, reappear, recur, red algae, reoccur, repeat, resonate, return, reverberating, reverberation, revolution, revolve, rhythm, rockweed, roll around, rotate, rotation, round, rust, saprophyte, sargasso, sargassum, sea lentil, sea moss, sea wrack, seaweed, series, slat, smut, spell, splutter, sputter, staccato, succulent, systole, tempo, thesis, throb, throbbing, thrumming, thumping, tick, ticktock, toadstool, trigger pulse, turn, undulate, upbeat, vetch, vibrate, vibrating, vibration, vine, wave, waver, wheel, wheel around, wort, wrack

ROGET THESAURUS

pulse

Periodicity

N regularity of recurrence, periodicity, intermittence, beat, oscillation, pulse, pulsation, rhythm, alternation, alternateness, alternativeness, alternity, bout, round, revolution, rotation, turn, say, anniversary, jubilee, centenary, catamenia, courses, menses, menstrual flux, rota, cycle, period, stated time, routine, days of the week, Sunday, Monday, months of the year, January, feast, fast, Christmas, Easter, New Year's day, Allhallows, Allhallowmas, All Saints' Day, All Souls', All Souls' Day, Ash Wednesday, bicentennial, birthday, bissextile, Candlemas, Dewali, groundhog day, Halloween, Hallowmas, Lady day, leap year, Midsummer day, Muharram, woodchuck day, St. Swithin's day, natal day, yearbook, yuletide, punctuality, regularity, steadiness, periodic, periodical, serial, recurrent, cyclical, rhythmical, recurring, intermittent, remittent, alternate, every other, hourly, diurnal, daily, quotidian, tertian, weekly, hebdomadal, hebdomadary, biweekly, fortnightly, bimonthly, catamenial, monthly, menstrual, yearly, annual, biennial, triennial, centennial, secular, paschal, lenten, regular, steady, punctual, regular as clockwork, periodically, at regular intervals, at stated times, at fixed established, at established periods, punctually, de die in diem, from day to day, day by day, by turns, in turn, in rotation, alternately, every other day, off and on, ride and tie, round and round.

Oscillation

N oscillation, vibration, libration, motion of a pendulum, nutation, undulation, pulsation, pulse, alternation, coming and going, ebb and flow, flux and reflux, ups and down, fluctuation, vacillation, wave, vibratiuncle, swing, beat, shake, wag, seesaw, dance, lurch, dodge, logan, loggan, rocking-stone, vibroscope, oscillating, oscillatory, undulatory, pulsatory, libratory, rectilinear, vibratory, vibratile, pendulous, to and fro, up and down, backwards and forwards, hither and yon, seesaw, zigzag, wibble-wabble, in and out, from side to side, like buckets in a well.

Life

N life, vitality, viability, animation, vital spark, vital flame, soul, spirit, respiration, wind, breath of life, breath of one's nostrils, oxygen, air, respirator, artificial respirator, heart and lung machine, iron lung, medical devices, lifeblood, Archeus, existence, vivification, vital force, vitalization, revivification, Prometheus, life to come, physiology, biology, animal ecology, nourishment, staff of life, genetics, heredity, inheritance, evolution, natural selection, reproduction (production), microbe, aerobe, anaerobe, facultative anaerobe, obligate aerobe, obligate anaerobe, halophile, methanogen, archaebacteria, microaerophile, animal, vegetable, artificial life, robot, robotics, artificial intelligence, breathing, breathing rate, heartbeat, pulse, temperature, preservation of life, healing (medicine), living, alive, in life, in the flesh, in the land of the living, on this side of the grave, above ground, breathing, quick, animated, animative, lively, all alive and kicking, tenacious of life, full of life, yeasty, vital, vitalic, vivifying, vivified viable, zoetic, Promethean, vivendi causa, atqui vivere militare est, non est vivere sed valere vita.

Vegetable

N vegetable, vegetable kingdom, flora, verdure, plant, tree, shrub, bush, creeper, herb, herbage, grass, annual, perennial, biennial, triennial, exotic, timber, forest, wood, woodlands, timberland, hurst, frith, holt, weald, park, chase, greenwood, brake, grove, copse, coppice, bocage, tope, clump of trees, thicket, spinet, spinney, underwood, brushwood, scrub, boscage, bosk, ceja, chaparal, motte, arboretum, bush, jungle, prairie, heath, heather, fern, bracken, furze, gorse, whin, grass, turf, pasture, pasturage, turbary, sedge, rush, weed, fungus, mushroom, toadstool, lichen, moss, conferva, mold, growth, alfalfa, alfilaria, banyan, blow, blowth, floret, petiole, pin grass, timothy, yam, yew, zinnia, foliage, branch, bough, ramage, stem, tigella, spray, leaf, flower, blossom, bine, flowering plant, timber tree, fruit tree, pulse, legume, vegetable, vegetal, vegetive, vegitous, herbaceous, herbal, botanic, sylvan, silvan, arborary, arboreous, arborescent, arborical, woody, grassy, verdant, verdurous, floral, mossy, lignous, ligneous, wooden, leguminous, vosky, cespitose, turf-like, turfy, endogenous, exogenous, green-robed senators of mighty woods, this is the forest primeval.