Heartbeat

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  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"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  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
  
  

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  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}.
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  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)