heartbeat \heartbeat\ n.
the audible and palpable rhythmic contraction and expansion
of the arteries with each beat of the heart; as, he listened
to her heartbeat with a stethoscope.
Syn: pulse, pulsation, beat.
[WordNet 1.5]
in a heartbeat immediately.
[PJC]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
heartbeat
n 1: the rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with
each beat of the heart; "he could feel the beat of her
heart" [syn: pulse, pulsation, beat]
2: a very short time (as the time it takes the eye blink or the
heart to beat); "if I had the chance I'd do it in a flash"
[syn: blink of an eye, flash, instant, jiffy, split
second, trice, twinkling, wink, New York minute]
3: an animating or vital unifying force; "New York is the
commercial heartbeat of America"
WordNet (r) 2.0
63 Moby Thesaurus words for "heartbeat":
anima, animating force, arrhythmia, atman, bathmism, beat, beating,
beating heart, biological clock, biorhythm, blood, breath,
breath of life, divine breath, divine spark, drumming, elan vital,
essence of life, flutter, force of life, growth force, heart,
heartblood, heartthrob, impulse of life, inspiriting force, jiva,
jivatma, life breath, life cycle, life essence, life force,
life principle, life process, lifeblood, living force, palpitation,
pitapat, pitter-patter, pneuma, prana, pulsation, pulse, rat-a-tat,
rataplan, rhythm, seat of life, soul, spark of life, spirit,
staccato, tempo, throb, throbbing, vis vitae, vis vitalis,
vital energy, vital flame, vital fluid, vital force,
vital principle, vital spark, vital spirit
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
heartbeat n. 1. The signal emitted by a Level 2 Ethernet transceiver at
the end of every packet to show that the collision-detection circuit is
still connected. 2. A periodic synchronization signal used by software
or hardware, such as a bus clock or a periodic interrupt. 3. The
`natural' oscillation frequency of a computer's clock crystal, before
frequency division down to the machine's clock rate. 4. A signal emitted
at regular intervals by software to demonstrate that it is still alive.
Sometimes hardware is designed to reboot the machine if it stops hearing
a heartbeat. See also breath-of-life packet.
Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)
heartbeat
1. The signal emitted by a Level 2 Ethernet
transceiver at the end of every packet to show that the
collision-detection circuit is still connected.
2. A periodic synchronisation signal used by software or
hardware, such as a bus clock or a periodic interrupt.
3. The "natural" oscillation frequency of a computer's clock
crystal, before frequency division down to the machine's clock
rate.
4. A signal emitted at regular intervals by software to
demonstrate that it is still alive. Sometimes hardware is
designed to reboot the machine if it stops hearing a
heartbeat. See also breath-of-life packet, watchdog.
[{Jargon File]
(1996-03-12)
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)
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