Throbbing, quivering, or contraction of a part of the body; spec. perceptibly fast, strong, or irregular beating of the heart; an instance of this…

The action of pant, v. (in various senses); esp. quick, heavy breathing; rapid throbbing. Also as a count noun: a short, quick, laboured breath, a…

Scottish. A quickened or throbbing beat of the heart; a palpitation. Cf. earlier sense B. Now rare.

dialect (Scottish) A (violent) beat of the heart or of the pulse.

the place where the apex of the heart can be felt or seen to strike the chest wall during systole.

Medicine. A beat of the heart or of the pulse following a main or normal beat; (in later use) spec. an extrasystole. Now rare.

Pathology. ‘The shock felt on the chest-wall when the heart beats, or over an aneurysm during the cardiac systole‥Cardiac impulse, the apex beat of…

A heart-beat outside the normal rhythm.

the normal rhythm of the heart, proceeding from the sino-atrial node.

A smaller wave following a spike in an action potential; the changes in electrical potential across a cell membrane that this represents.

Physiology. Originally (in experimental studies of muscle contraction): a load added to a strip of muscle after contraction has begun. In later use…

Physiology. The degree to which a muscle is stretched prior to contraction; spec. the pressure or stress on the ventricular wall of the heart at the…