pulse

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   produce or modulate (as electromagnetic waves) in the form of short bursts or pulses or cause an apparatus to produce pulses

   pulse waves

2. 2
   verb

   drive by or as if by pulsation

   A soft breeze pulsed the air

3. 3
   noun

   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.

4. 4
   noun

   The rate of this beat as an indication of a person's health.

   Her pulse was 110 at 8 a.m.

5. 5
   noun

   A 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.

6. 6
   noun

   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.

   You can really feel the pulse of the city in this district.

7. 7
   noun

   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 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.

8. 8
   verb

   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.

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, eje…