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, 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)).
Medicine, Physiology, Sciences 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.
[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 bad, ſince they denote that there is neither a due influx of the ſpirits, nor a proper and equal mixture of the blood; but particularly ſuch Pulſes always prognoſticate unlucky events, when they are weak.1764, “№ XXVII. A Dissertation on the Pulse, and the Dijudication Drawn therefrom.”, in The Medical Museum: Or, A Repository of Cases, Experiments, Researches, and Discoveries Collected at Home and Abroad […], volume III, London: […] W. Richardson and S. Clark; and sold by W. Bristow, […], →OCLC, page 216:
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[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.1870 May 21, Thomas Cash, “United Kingdom Band of Hope Union. Annual Conference.”, in The Temperance Record. The Organ of the National Temperance League, number 738, London: William Tweedie, […], →OCLC, page 247, column 2:
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Figuratively 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.1756 (date written), [Edmund Burke], “Sect. XI. The Artificial Infinite.”, in A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, […], published 1757, →OCLC, part IV, page 135:
I roved at random through the town, / [...] / And caught once more the distant shout, / The measured pulse of racing oars / Among the willows; [...]1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto LXXXV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 125:
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Figuratively 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.
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Biology, Chemistry, Natural sciences, Physical sciences An (increased) amount of a substance (such as a drug or an isotopic label) given over a short time.
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Cooking, Food, Lifestyle A 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.
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Entertainment, Human sciences, Lifestyle, Linguistics, Music, Phonology, Prosody, Sciences The beat or tactus of a piece of music or verse; also, a repeated sequence of such beats.
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Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics 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.1969, “[Scientific Progress in F[iscal] Y[ear] 69: Electronics] The Photon Echo”, in Jacob Seiden, editor, OAR Progress for 1969 (OAR 69-0017; AD 699300), Arlington, Va.: Office of Aerospace Research, United States Air Force, →OCLC, page 71, column 1:
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Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics Synonym of autosoliton (“a stable solitary localized structure that arises in nonlinear spatially extended dissipative systems due to mechanisms of self-organization”).
Transport 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.
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.
Also, Figuratively 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.1850, W[illiam] C[ox] Bennett, “The Shadow-hunted”, in Poems, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 139:
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.2023 August 30, Ashley Strickland, “Astronomers solve the puzzle of an unusual pulsing dead star”, in CNN:
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Biology, Chemistry, Natural sciences, Physical sciences 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.
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Cooking, Food, Lifestyle To operate a food processor on (some ingredient) in short bursts, to break it up without liquidizing it.
Figuratively, Literary 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.
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As pulseth in thy northern skies / Th' Aurora—so, in ecstasies, / Through starry maze, my spirit flies; [...]1849, A[ndrew] J[ames] Symington, “To Mademoiselle Jenny Lind”, in Harebell Chimes: Or Summer Memories and Musings, London: Houlston and Stoneman; Edinburgh: W[illia]m Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, stanza 5, page 139:
None dare awake the deep affright / That pulseth in the heart of night, [...]1864, James Thomson, “Vane’s Story”, in Vane’s Story, Weddah and Om-El-Bonain, and Other Poems, London: Reeves and Turner, […], published 1881, →OCLC, the story, page 54:
Come, descend to lower station! / We are of the same creation, / And the life that all sustains / Pulseth in our purple veins: [...]1867, Arthur H[enry] W[innington] Ingram, “To a Squirrel”, in The Doom of the Gods of Hellas, and Other Poems, London: A. W. Bennett, […], →OCLC, page 57:
O Heart Divine, that pulsest through all space, / Why dost Thou seem so far away and cold? / We miss the pressure of the arms that fold; / We long to hear Thy voice, to see Thy face. [From the New Orleans Times-Democrat.]1887 February 3, F. V., “O Heart Divine!”, in Lyman Abbott, Hamilton W[right] Mabie, editors, The Christian Union, volume 35, number 5, New York, N.Y.: The Christian Union Company, →OCLC, page 31, column 2:
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Figuratively 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.2022 February 18, Jamelle Bouie, “Opinion: You Just Can’t Tell the Truth About America Anymore”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 02 May 2023:
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.2023 March 26, David Hytner, “Kane and Bukayo Saka combine against Ukraine for England’s perfect Euros start”, in The Guardian:
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).
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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.2022 November 22, Katie Hunt, “Neanderthals cooked meals with pulses 70,000 years ago”, in CNN:
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Edible grains or seeds from leguminous plants, especially in a mature, dry condition; (countable) a specific kind of such a grain or seed.