palpitate

Verb

palpitate (third-person singular simple present palpitates, present participle palpitating, simple past and past participle palpitated)

1. (intransitive) To beat strongly or rapidly; said especially of the heart.
   • When he just looks at me, my heart begins to palpitate with excitement.
2. (transitive) To cause to beat strongly or rapidly.
   • The allergy medicine palpitates my heart.
3. (intransitive) To 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 palpitating1749, [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
   • “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 &...

   Synonyms:

   quiver, tremble, vibrate