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) 3.0 (2006) [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}, {heartbeat}, {beat}]
2: a very short time (as the time it takes the eye to blink or
the heart to beat); "if I had the chance I'd do it in a
flash" [syn: {blink of an eye}, {flash}, {heartbeat},
{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 The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003) [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}.
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