[f. THROB v.] An act of throbbing; a violent beat or pulsation of the heart or an artery.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., May, 208. A thrilling throbbe from her hart did aryse.
1579. Lyly, Euphues, Wks. 1902, I. 264. As the throbbes and throwes in chyldbirth wrought hir payne. Ibid. (1597), Wom. in Moon, I. i. 171. What throbs are these that labour in my brest?
1612. trans. Benvenuto’s Passenger, II. i. § 2. 361. Throbbes, yellings, teares.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 76, ¶ 6. Another lenitive by which the throbs of the breast are assuaged.
1827. Scott, Surg. Dau., vii. The feverish throb of his pulsation was diminished.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xii. Not one throb of anguish, not one tear of the oppressed, is forgotten by the Man of Sorrows.
1889. M. Gray, Reproach Annesley, VI. ii. His heart gave a strong throb.
b. Applied to a (normal) pulsation.
1653. Jer. Taylor, Serm. for Year, I. xvii. 231. Though it [the heart] strikes to one side by the prerogative of Nature, yet those throbs and constant motions are felt on the other side also.
1891. E. Peacock, N. Brendon, I. 230. The throb of the pulse in the temple.
c. transf. and fig.; cf. senses of THROB v. In first quot. used for a (formal) lamentation: cf. THRENE.
1626. Jackson, Creed, VIII. xxiii. § 5. The deepe straine of this particular threne or throb.
1836. W. Irving, Astoria, I. 243. He … felt a throb of his old pioneer spirit, impelling him to … join the adventurous band.
1868. J. H. Blunt. Ref. Ch. Eng., I. 333. We hear the dying throbs of that sad devotion.
1889. Doyle, Micah Clarke, 245. There were half-a-dozen throbs of flame in the mist behind, and as many balls sung among our rigging.
1893. Gunter, Miss Dividends (1893), 184. Every throb of the locomotive … bears him away from Erma Travenion.
