palpitate, v.
(ˈpælpɪteɪt)
[f. L. palpitāt-, ppl. stem of palpitāre to move frequently and quickly, tremble, throb, freq. of palpāre palp v. Cf. F. palpiter (16th c. in Godef. Compl.).]
1. intr. To pulsate or beat rapidly and strongly, as the result of exercise, strong emotion, or as a symptom of disease: said of the heart, and transf. of the body or its members; to throb.
| 1623 Cockeram ii, To Beate or leape like the heart, Palpitate. a 1715 Burnet Own Time iii. (1724) I. 511 His heart..continued to palpitate some time after it was on the Hangman's knife. 1766 Goldsm. Vic. W. (1876) 204 My heart palpitating with fears of detection. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. ix, ‘I do so palpitate’, observed Miss Squeers. |
| fig. 1871 M. Arnold Friendsh. Garl. viii. 67 [Burlesquing the style of a popular newspaper] Researches concerning labour and capital, which are hardly, as our Paris correspondent says, palpitating with actuality. 1901 Lady's Realm X. 548/2 London may throb and palpitate with functions and festivities. |
b. gen. To move with a vibrating or quivering motion; to tremble, quiver.
| 1849 Noad Electricity 471 The limb [of the frog] traversed by the direct current palpitated for a certain time. 1863 Longfellow Wayside Inn, Stud. T. 87 Fountains palpitating in the heat. 1886 Sheldon tr. Flaubert's Salammbô 16 Her thin nostrils palpitated. |
2. trans. To cause to pulsate rapidly or throb.
| 1790 A. M. Johnson Monmouth I. 163 What strange transporting sensations palpitated my heart. 1833 T. Hook Widow & Marquess vii, These..palpitated a bosom pure and at rest from every fiercer passion. |