impulse

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im·pulse / ˈimˌpəls/ • n. 1. a sudden strong and unreflective urge or desire to act: I had an almost irresistible impulse to giggle | [as adj.] impulse buying. ∎  the tendency to act in this way: he was a man of impulse, not premeditation.2. a driving or motivating force; an impetus: an added impulse to this process of renewal.3. a pulse of electrical energy; a brief current: nerve impulses | a spiral is used to convert radio waves into electrical impulses.4. Physics a force acting briefly on a body and producing a finite change of momentum. ∎  a change of momentum so produced, equivalent to the average value of the force multiplied by the time during which it acts.PHRASES: on impulse (or on an impulse) suddenly and without forethought; impulsively.

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