Pulse vs Twitch - What's the difference?
pulse | twitch |
(physiology) A normally regular beat felt when arteries are depressed, caused by the pumping action of the heart.
A beat or throb.
* (rfdate) Tennyson
* (rfdate) Burke
(music) The beat or tactus of a piece of music.
An autosoliton.
To beat, to throb, to flash.
To flow, particularly of blood.
To emit in discrete quantities.
Any annual legume yielding from 1 to 12 grains or seeds of variable size, shape and colour within a pod, and used as food for humans or animals.
A brief, small (sometimes involuntary) movement out of place and then back again; a spasm.
(informal) Action of spotting or seeking out a bird, especially a rare one.
(farriery) A stick with a hole in one end through which passes a loop, which can be drawn tightly over the upper lip or an ear of a horse and twisted to keep the animal quiet during minor surgery.
To perform a twitch; spasm.
* (rfdate) — [http://www.mindspring.com/~randyhoward/new_page_6.htm]
* 1922 , (Margery Williams), (The Velveteen Rabbit)
*:Their feet padded softly on the ground, and they crept quite close to him, twitching their noses...
To jerk sharply and briefly.
* Alexander Pope
To spot or seek out a bird, especially a rare one.
* 1995 , Quarterly Review of Biology vol. 70 p. 348:
* 2003 , Mark Cocker, Birders: Tales of a Tribe [http://books.google.com/books?id=tv-Noj1Fvc0C], ISBN 0802139965, page 52:
* 2005 , Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch: One Man, One Continent, a Race Against Time [http://books.google.com/books?id=fWLmpqL4EMsC], ISBN 1741145287, page 119:
couch grass, Elymus repens ; a species of grass, often considered as a weed.
As nouns the difference between pulse and twitch
is that pulse is a normally regular beat felt when arteries are depressed, caused by the pumping action of the heart while twitch is a brief, small (sometimes involuntary) movement out of place and then back again; a spasm.As verbs the difference between pulse and twitch
is that pulse is to beat, to throb, to flash while twitch is to perform a twitch; spasm.pulse
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) . For spelling, the -e'' (on ''-lse ) is so the end is pronounced /ls/, rather than /lz/ as in pulls, and does not change the vowel (‘u’). Compare else, false, convulse.Noun
(en noun)- the measured pulse of racing oars
- When the ear receives any simple sound, it is struck by a single pulse of the air, which makes the eardrum and the other membranous parts vibrate according to the nature and species of the stroke.
See also
* beat * (Physiology) arrhythmia, blood pressure, heartbeat * (Music) meter, tempoVerb
- In the dead of night, all was still but the pulsing light.
- Hot blood pulses through my veins.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) pouls, .Noun
(en noun)References
* * * DeLone et. al. (Eds.) (1975). Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0130493465.External links
* (pulse) *Anagrams
* * ----twitch
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) twicchen, from (etyl) twiccian, from (etyl) ).Noun
(es)- I saw a little twitch in the man's face, and knew he was lying.
Derived terms
* nervous twitchVerb
- "Why is it that you twitch whenever I say Faith?"
- to twitch somebody's sleeve for attention
- Thrice they twitched the diamond in her ear.
- "The Birdwatchers Handbook ... will be a clear asset to those who 'twitch' in Europe."
- "But the key revelation from twitching that wonderful Iceland Gull on 10 March 1974 wasn't its eroticism. It was the sheer innocence of it."
- "I hadn't seen John since I went to Adelaide to (unsuccessfully) twitch the '87 Northern Shoveler, when I was a skinny, eighteen- year-old kid. "
