pulse
noun
- in physics, single disturbance moving through a medium
- count of arterial pulse per minute, equivalent to measuring the heart rate
- rapid increase from baseline and subsequent decrease back to baseline in a signal
- tactile arterial palpation of the heartbeat by trained fingertips
- act or process of expanding and contracting (in an up and down or on and off manner)
verb
- to expand and contract (in an up and down or on and off manner)
noun
- Edible grains or seeds of leguminous plants
- leguminous plants (peas, lentils, beans, etc.)
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /pʌls/ / [pəls] / /pʊls/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English puls (“(collectively) seeds of a leguminous plant used as food; leguminous plants collectively; a species of leguminous plant”), Early Middle English pols (in compounds), possibly from Anglo-Norman pus, puz, Middle French pouls, pols, pous, and Old French pous, pou (“gruel, mash, porridge”) (perhaps in the sense of a gruel made from pulses), or directly from their etymon Latin puls (“meal (coarse-ground edible part of various grains); porridge”), probably from Ancient Greek πόλτος (póltos, “porridge made from flour”), from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“dust; flour”) (perhaps by extension from *pel- (“to beat, strike; to drive; to push, thrust”), in the sense of something beaten).
- Annual 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 make the plants more palatable, pulses, which have a naturally bitter taste, were soaked, coarsely ground or pounded with stones to remove their husk.”
- Edible grains or seeds from leguminous plants, especially in a mature, dry condition; (countable) a specific kind of such a grain or seed.
verb
Etymology: From Late Middle English pulse, Middle English pulsen (“to pulse, throb”), from Latin pulsāre, the present active infinitive of pulsō (“to push; to beat, batter, hammer, strike; to knock on; (figuratively) to drive or urge on, impel; to move; to agitate, disquiet, disturb”), the frequentative of pellō (“to drive, impel, propel, push; to banish, eject, expel; to set in motion; to strike”); see further at etymology 1. Doublet of push.
- To 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.”
- 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.
- To operate a food processor on (some ingredient) in short bursts, to break it up without liquidizing it.
- To apply an electric current or signal that varies in strength to (something).
- To manipulate (an electric current, electromagnetic wave, etc.) so that it is emitted in pulses.
- 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.
“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.”
- Of 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 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.”