excite
/ɪkˈsʌɪt
/ /ɛkˈsʌɪt/verb [with object]
1Cause (someone) to feel very enthusiastic and eager: flying still excites me Gould was excited by these discoveries...
- In reality what it is about is trying to inspire and excite people to think about the town centre.
- For me, Life Through My Eyes is about what inspires me, excites me, aggravates me, relaxes me, outrages me and helps me.
- That's all I wanted to do, not thinking that I would make waves, change minds, excite people, incite people, turn on people, repulse people.
Synonyms
thrill, exhilarate, animate, enliven, rouse, stir, move, stimulate, galvanize, electrify, fire the imagination of, fire the enthusiasm of;
delight, enrapture, intoxicate
informal send, tickle, tickle someone pink, buck up, pep up, ginger up, give someone a buzz, give someone a kick, get someone going
North American informal light a fire under, give someone a charge
rare inspirit
1.1Arouse (someone) sexually: his Mediterranean vibrancy excited and stimulated her...
- What excites a person sexually (particularly if it's only visual) is as distinct as that person's fingerprints.
- I suppose one could see it as an old man getting excited by the sexuality of young girls.
- Even the most graphic porn doesn't excite you any more.
Synonyms
arouse, arouse sexually, make someone feel sexually excited, stimulate, titillate, inflame;
please, attract, entice
informal turn someone on, give someone a thrill, get someone going, float someone's boat, do it for someone, light someone's fire, tickle someone's fancy
2Give rise to (a feeling or reaction): the ability to excite interest in others...
- So, since their sectional interest excites no passions amongst the populace, some are attracted by more radical measures.
- If the advert merely excites your curiosity or interest, something Maloney calls curious disbelief, that will be enough.
- The system is designed to send vibrations to sensitive parts of the driver's body, and it could excite feelings in them that have long lain dormant.
Synonyms
provoke, stir up, elicit, rouse, arouse, stimulate, kindle, trigger (off), touch off, spark off, awaken, incite, instigate, foment, bring out, cause, bring about
literary enkindle
3Produce a state of increased energy or activity in (a physical or biological system): the energy of an electron is sufficient to excite the atom...
- By giving the vaccine along with another drug that excites the immune system, doctors can teach Bonet's own immune system to fight her cancer.
- Now, when this wavefront hits a material, some of the wavelets will hit atoms and excite electrons to a higher energy state.
- External energy pumped into the atoms of the lasing medium excites electrons to higher energy states; returning to their base state, they emit photons.
Origin
Middle English (in the sense 'incite someone to do something'): from Old French exciter or Latin excitare, frequentative of exciere 'call out or forth'. sense 1 dates from the mid 19th century.