palpitate

present singular third person palpitates · participle present palpitating · participle past palpitated · past palpitated

1. intransitiveTo beat strongly or rapidly; said especially of the heart.

   When he just looks at me, my heart begins to palpitate with excitement.

2. transitiveTo cause to beat strongly or rapidly.

   The allergy medicine palpitates my heart.

3. intransitiveTo shake tremulously

   I was now so bruised, so batter'd, so spent with this over-match, that I could hardly stir, or raise myself, but lay palpitating

   Fanny Hill

   1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   “Two or three months more went by ; the public were eagerly awaiting the arrival of this semi-exotic claimant to an English peerage, and sensations, surpassing those of the Tichbourne case, were looked forward to with palpitating interest.[…]”

   1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Tremarn Case”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020

   Synonyms: quiver, tremble, vibrate