impulse
Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
impulse/ˈɪmpʌls/
▶noun
- 1 a sudden strong and unreflective urge to act.
- 2 an impetus.
- 3 a pulse of electrical energy; a brief current.
- 4 Physics a force acting briefly on a body and producing a change of momentum.
– origin C17 (earlier (ME) as impulsion), as a verb in the sense ‘give an impulse to’, from L. impuls-, impellere (see impel).
'impulse' also found in these Oxford entries:
abandon
- acetylcholinesterase
- action potential
- afflatus
- antidromic
- brainwave
- burst
- impulsive
- instinct
- neurotransmitter
- notion
- orthodromic
- presynaptic
- psychosexual
- response
- self-abandonment
- signal
- spontaneous
- spur
- strangle
- sublimate
- suggestion
- tarantism
- urge
