Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Undergoing pulsation; vibrating.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Capable of pulsating; pulsating or pulsatory; throbbing; beating.
  • Requiring to be struck in order to produce sound; in music, noting an instrument the tone of which is produced by blows, as of a hammer, as a drum, tambourine, cymbals, or a bell.
  • noun A musical instrument which is sounded by means of blows.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Capable of being struck or beaten; played by beating or by percussion.
  • adjective Pulsating; throbbing, as a tumor.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective pulsating or vibrating
  • adjective characterized by pulses

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Medieval Latin pulsātilis, from Latin pulsātus, past participle of pulsāre, frequentative of pellere, to beat; see pulsate.]

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