| 释义 |
excite, v.|ɛkˈsaɪt|
Also 4–5 exite, 4–6 excyte, 5 excit, exyte.
[a. Fr. exciter (= Pr. and Sp. excitar), ad. L. excitāre, freq. of exciēre to set in motion, awaken, call forth, instigate, f. ex- out + ciēre to set in motion.]
1. trans. To set in motion, stir up.
a. fig. To move, stir up, instigate, incite. Const. † til, to, unto; to with inf. or that (with subord. clause); also simply. Now only with mixed notion of 5.
a1340Hampole Psalter Prol., Þe sange of psalmes..excites aungels til oure help. Ibid. ix. 25 Antecrist sall..excite him [God] in his synn to punysch him. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xxiii. (1495) 131 Oxen ben excited to traueile more by the swete songe of the heerd than by strokes and pryckes. 1494Fabyan Chron. i. v. 12 Gwentolena..excyted her Fader and frendes to make warre vpon the sayd Lotryne. a1575Abp. Parker in Farr S.P. Eliz. (1845) I. 2 Of Sabbath day the solemn feast Doth vs excyte by rest, God's mighty workes that we declare. 1655–60Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 185/1 Exciting the Soul of the World and converting it to himself. 1703Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 135 Excite those People to use a little more fervour in their Prayers. 1722Wollaston Relig. Nat. v. 118 We excite children by praising them. 1818Jas. Mill Brit. India II. iv. iv. 129 That veteran intriguer..excited his attendants to resist. 1839Keightley Hist. Eng. II. 54 He was sent to try to excite the emperor to a crusade. 1850McCosh Div. Govt. ii. iii. (1874) 254 The imagination is apt to be still more excited by the stirring incidents of war.
absol.c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 516 Þe kyng may take awey þes temporaltees from prelatis, whan laweful cause exitiþ. 1590Spenser F.Q. iii. ii. 3 Whose prayse I would endyte..as dewtie doth excyte. 1683Soame & Dryden Art of Poetry ii. 9 There native beauty pleases and excites.
†b. To provoke, challenge. Obs.
a1340Hampole Psalter v. 12 Out pute þaim: for þai excitid þe lord. 1388Wyclif Judith xiv. 12 Myis ben goon out of her caues, and doren excite us to batel. 1485Caxton Chas. Gt. 40 Of Fyerabras how he came to excyte thexersyte of Charles.
†c. In physical sense: To set in motion, stir up (so L. excitare harenam, Sallust.) Obs. rare—1.
1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 362 He snuffs the Wind, his Heels the Sand excite.
2. To rouse, awaken.
†a. lit. To rouse from unconsciousness. rare.
c1440Love Bonavent. Mirr. xlv. (Sherard MS.) 101 Than was our lady excited and roos as it hadde ben fro sleep.
†b. To call up (a departed spirit). Obs. rare.
1651Walton in Reliq. Wotton. (1672) 208 Unless..we could..excite them again, and confer a while with their naked Ghosts.
c. To call forth or quicken (a faculty, feeling, etc.) from potential into actual existence; to rouse up, awaken (what is dormant, sluggish, or latent).
1393Gower Conf. III. 18 Venus..Hath yive him drinke..Of thilke cuppe., whiche exciteth The lust. 1447O. Bokenham Seyntys Introd. (Roxb.) 4 The fyrst cause is for to excyte Menys affeccyoun. 1641Wilkins Math. Magick i. i. (1648) 3 Such mysticall expressions, as might excite the peoples wonder. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 98 With Shouts, the Coward's Courage they excite. 1699Bentley Phal. xi. 304 'Tis the design of Tragedy to excite Compassion in the Auditory. 1703Moxon Mech. Exerc. 242 The Fire in Lime burnt..lies hid..but Water excites it again. 1722Wollaston Relig. Nat. iii. 55 A master may, by the exercises he sets, excite the superior capacity of his scholars. 1766Fordyce Serm. Yng. Wom. (1767) I. iii. 103 Who can describe the detestation it excites? 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 495 The characters excite little or no interest.
3. To induce, elicit, provoke (actions, manifestations); to bring about, occasion (active conditions).
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vii. lxvii. (1495) 285 It is a generall medycyne to excyte spewynge. c1400Three Kings Cologne (1886) 122 Þe deuyll..excited..among þe pepil diuers opynyouns of heresy. 1576Newton tr. Lemnie's Complex. (1633) 104 It is expedient to excite and cherish native heat with exercise. 1612Enchir. Med. 111 Through a catarrhall distillation the cough is excited. 1704Penn in Pa. Hist. Soc. Mem. IX. 341 Excite his return, or to send for his family to him. 1786Gilpin Mount. & Lakes Cumbld. (1788) II. 60 Brass guns, for the purpose of exciting echoes. 1787Winter Syst. Husb. 73 Heat..excites and promotes a motion in the fluids. 1797Burke Regic. Peace iii. Wks. VIII. 303 They [the English ministry] did not excite the general confederacy in Europe. 1803Phil. Trans. XCIII. 84 The bar..was melted in the strongest heat which could be excited. 1856Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) II. vii. 176 [He] had..endeavoured to excite an insurrection in the eastern counties. 1860Motley Netherl. (1868) I. v. 192 Fire-ships, intended only to excite a conflagration of the bridge. 1871Blackie Four Phases i. 142 It may excite a smile when I say so.
4. To affect by a stimulus (bodily organs or tissues), so as to produce or intensify their characteristic activity.
1831Brewster Nat. Magic iii. 37 We observe it [the retina] to be so excited by local pressures..as to see in total darkness moving and shapeless masses of coloured light. 1855Bain Senses & Int. i. ii. §18 (1864) 51 Irritation or contact with a surface excites a single group of muscles in one way. 1875Darwin Insectiv. Pl. i. 4 Changes which take place within the cells of the tentacles when the glands are excited.
5. In modern use: To move to strong emotion, stir to passion; to stir up to eager tumultuous feeling, whether pleasurable or painful. Also intr. and absol.
1821P. Egan Life in London i. vi. 85 If some of the plates should appear rather warm, the purchasers of ‘Life in London’ may feel assured, that nothing is added to them tending to excite. 1850Thackeray Pendennis lxi. (1879) 601 All the events of life, however strongly they may move or eagerly excite him never can remove that sainted image from his heart. 1855–79[see excited ppl. a. 1]. 1886L. Stephen Life H. Fawcett viii. 352 The only result of his endeavours to bring it before the House had been to excite the Under-Secretary for India. 1891Punch CI. 121/2 ‘It excites me—it amuses me to talk to a cocher.’ 1968Listener 22 Feb. 252/3 Last week's legitimate television drama failed to excite.
6. a. Electricity and Magnetism. To induce electric or magnetic activity in (a substance); to set (an electric current) in motion; also absol. b. Photography. To render (a plate, etc.) sensitive to light; to sensitize.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. ii. 60 If an iron or steele not formerly excited, be held perpendicularly or inclinatorily unto the needle, the lower end thereof will attract the cuspis or southerne point. 1827Faraday Chem. Manip. xxiv. 631 Excite a glass rod by silk. 1839G. Bird Nat. Phil. 157 The magnets..are used merely to excite in the manner already explained. Ibid. 277 The remarkable fact of magnets exciting electric currents in wires moved near them. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. III. 270 For exciting the collodion film a bath should be mixed. J. C. Leake ibid. IV. 323/2 When excited the plate should be placed in the dark-slide.
7. Physics.
a. To induce a condition in (a substance) in which it emits a characteristic spectrum of radiation; to bring about the emission of (a spectrum).
b. Hence, to render (an atom, etc.) excited (see excited ppl. a. 2 e).
a.1913Proc. R. Soc. A. LXXXVIII. 24 Elements..which emit secondary fluorescent X-radiation when excited by a suitable beam of Röntgen rays. 1926[see exciting ppl. a. b]. 1959Chambers's Encycl. XIII. 70/1 The electric arc is most suitable for exciting the line spectra of elements. 1966McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. XII. 581/1 Sources of radiation for spectrography are incandescent or electrically excited.
b.1921Chem. Abstr. XV. 1854 (heading) Observations on atoms excited by electron impact. 1934H. E. White Introd. Atomic Spectra vi. 92 If in collision the energy exchange between..an electron and atom is all energy of translation, the atom is not excited and the collision is said to be elastic. 1953P. Morrison in E. Segrè Exper. Nucl. Physics II. vi. xi. 150 One nucleon enters the nucleus..while four more are excited but ‘captured’, leaving the residual nucleus excited by 66 Mev. 1969Times 11 July 14/2 Radio signals emitted by helium atoms excited by the high temperatures in the interstellar gas clouds.
▸ trans. To arouse (a person) sexually.
1879Pearl Oct. 108 To handle, feel, and revel in such a luxuriously covered pussy and bottom, excited me more every moment. 1930D. H. Lawrence A propos of Lady Chatterley's Lover 25 We read of the woman-savage who wore three overcoats on top of one another to excite her man. 1959M. Richler Apprenticeship Duddy Kravitz xii. 79 Gin excites them. Horseback riding gives them hot pants too. 1989S. Fisher Sexual Images of Self ii. 53 It is possible that assertive women are more orgastic because they more forthrightly inform their sex partners as to the forms of sexual stimulation most likely to excite them strongly. |