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Want of harmony; discord; incongruity. [R.] A disharmony in the different impulses that constitute it [our nature]. Coleridge.

act or motion of drifting; the force which impels or drives; an overpowering influence or impulse. A bad man, being under the drift of any passion, will follow the impulse of it till something interpose. South.

Having great force of impulse; as, a driving wind or storm.

Conveyed outward; as, efferent impulses, i. e., such as are conveyed by the motor or efferent nerves from the central nervous organ outwards; -- opposed to afferent.

To throw out, as an exclamation; to utter by a brief and sudden impulse; as, to ejaculate a prayer.

conceit of divine possession and revelation, or of being directly subject to some divine impulse. Enthusiasm is founded neither on reason nor divine revelation, but rises from the conceits of a warmed or overweening imagination. Locke.

h connects the train of wheel work with the pendulum or balance, giving to the latter the impulse by which it is kept in vibration; -- so called because it allows a tooth to escape from a pallet at each vibration.

A sound produced by an explosive impulse of the breath; (Phonetics) one of consonants p, b, t, d, k, g, which are sounded with a sort of explosive power of voice.

a sudden and unusual effort, activity, or motion, followed by relaxation or insction; an impulse and irregular action. The fits of the season. Shak.

tly or gently on the water, as a raft; to drift along; to move or glide without effort or impulse on the surface of a fluid, or through the air. They stretch their broad plumes and float upon the wind. Pope. There seems a floating whisper on the hills. Byron.

ugh the air or before the wind; esp., to pass or be driven rapidly through the air by any impulse.

the will of others; not under restraint, control, or compulsion; able to follow one's own impulses, desires, or inclinations; determining one's own course of action; not dependent; at liberty. That which has the power, or not the power, to operate, is that alone which is or is not free. Locke.

e is also applied to the artificial tones produced by a string or column of air, when the impulse given to it suffices only to make a part of the string or column vibrate; overtones.

nied with closure of the glottis, so that further entrance of air is prevented, while the impulse of the column of air entering and striking upon the closed glottis produces a sound, or hiccough. [Written also hickup or hiccup.]

Fig.: Impulse; incentive; vigor; force. Buckle.

en or momentary agency of a body in motion on another body; also, the impelling force, or impulse. "The impulsion of the air." Bacon.

Having the power of driving or impelling; giving an impulse; moving; impellent. Poor men! poor papers! We and they Do some impulsive force obey. Prior.

That which incites the mind, or moves to action; motive; incentive; impulse. Burke. From the long records of a distant age, Derive incitements to renew thy rage. Pope.

the direct action of the steam upon the water. The water is driven into the boiler by the impulse of a jet of the steam which becomes condensed as soon as it strikes the stream of cold water it impels; - - also called Giffard's injector, from the inventor.

ion of God. 2 Tim. iii. 16. The age which we now live in is not an age of inspiration and impulses. Sharp. Plenary inspiration (Theol.), that kind of inspiration which excludes all defect in the utterance of the inspired message. -- Verbal inspiration (Theol.), that kind of inspiration which extends to the very words…