pulse

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The regular beating of blood through your body, which you can feel at your wrist or neck.

   The nurse checked the patient's pulse.

2. 2
   noun

   A single strong beat or throb, or a regular series of them.

   She could feel the steady pulse of the music in her chest.

3. 3
   noun

   A short burst of energy such as light or radio waves.

   The laser sends out short pulses of light.

4. 4
   verb

   To beat or move in a steady, rhythmic way.

   The whole club seemed to pulse with the beat of the bass.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Pulse in the sense of the beat felt at the wrist entered English in the Middle English period and ultimately derives from Latin pellere, “drive.” Pulse meaning an edible seed is unrelated: it came through Old French from Latin puls, “porridge made from meal or pulses,” and is related to the histories of pollen and powder.

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…

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary