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(), 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. If all the world Should, in a pet of temperance, feed on pulse. Milton. 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.] 1. (Physiol.) The beating or throbbing of the heart or blood vessels, especially of the arteries. 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 Pulse v. i.To beat, as the arteries; to move in pulses or beats; to pulsate; to throb. Ray. Pulse v. t.[See Pulsate, Pulse a beating.] To drive by a pulsation; to cause to pulsate. [R.] スポンサード リンク
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