Wiktionary:Word of the day/2021/February 10

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Word of the day
for February 10
pulse n
  1. (uncountable) 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.
  2. (uncountable) Edible grains or seeds from leguminous plants, especially in a mature, dry condition; (countable) a specific kind of such a grain or seed.

[...]

  1. (physiology)
    1. 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.
    2. The nature or rate of this beat as an indication of a person's health.
  2. (figuratively) A beat or throb; also, a repeated sequence of such beats or throbs.
  3. (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.
  4. (chiefly biology, chemistry) An (increased) amount of a substance (such as a drug or an isotopic label) given over a short time.
  5. (cooking, chiefly attributively) 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.
  6. (music, prosody) The beat or tactus of a piece of music or verse; also, a repeated sequence of such beats.
  7. (physics)
    1. A brief burst of electromagnetic energy, such as light, radio waves, etc.
    2. Synonym of autosoliton (“a stable solitary localized structure that arises in nonlinear spatially extended dissipative systems due to mechanisms of self-organization”)
    3. (also electronics) A brief increase in the strength of an electrical signal; an impulse.

pulse v

  1. (transitive, also figuratively) To emit or impel (something) in pulses or waves.
  2. (transitive, chiefly biology, chemistry) 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.
  3. (transitive, cooking) To operate a food processor on (some ingredient) in short bursts, to break it up without liquidizing it.
  4. (transitive, electronics, physics)
    1. To apply an electric current or signal that varies in strength to (something).
    2. To manipulate (an electric current, electromagnetic wave, etc.) so that it is emitted in pulses.
  5. (intransitive, chiefly figuratively and 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.
  6. (intransitive, figuratively) Of an activity, place, or thing: to bustle with energy and liveliness; to pulsate.

Today is World Pulses Day, which was established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to recognize the importance of pulses as a global food.

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