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.
| a 1340 Hampole 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. 1398 Trevisa 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. 1494 Fabyan Chron. i. v. 12 Gwentolena..excyted her Fader and frendes to make warre vpon the sayd Lotryne. a 1575 Abp. 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. 1655–60 Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 185/1 Exciting the Soul of the World and converting it to himself. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 135 Excite those People to use a little more fervour in their Prayers. 1722 Wollaston Relig. Nat. v. 118 We excite children by praising them. 1818 Jas. Mill Brit. India II. iv. iv. 129 That veteran intriguer..excited his attendants to resist. 1839 Keightley Hist. Eng. II. 54 He was sent to try to excite the emperor to a crusade. 1850 M{supc}Cosh Div. Govt. ii. iii. (1874) 254 The imagination is apt to be still more excited by the stirring incidents of war. |
| absol. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 516 Þe kyng may take awey þes temporaltees from prelatis, whan laweful cause exitiþ. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. ii. 3 Whose prayse I would endyte..as dewtie doth excyte. 1683 Soame & Dryden Art of Poetry ii. 9 There native beauty pleases and excites. |
† b. To provoke, challenge.
Obs.| a 1340 Hampole Psalter v. 12 Out pute þaim: for þai excitid þe lord. 1388 Wyclif Judith xiv. 12 Myis ben goon out of her caues, and doren excite us to batel. 1485 Caxton 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.
| 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 362 He snuffs the Wind, his Heels the Sand excite. |
2. To rouse, awaken.
† a. lit. To rouse from unconsciousness.
rare.
| c 1440 Love 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.
| 1651 Walton 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).
| 1393 Gower Conf. III. 18 Venus..Hath yive him drinke..Of thilke cuppe., whiche exciteth The lust. 1447 O. Bokenham Seyntys Introd. (Roxb.) 4 The fyrst cause is for to excyte Menys affeccyoun. 1641 Wilkins Math. Magick i. i. (1648) 3 Such mysticall expressions, as might excite the peoples wonder. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 98 With Shouts, the Coward's Courage they excite. 1699 Bentley Phal. xi. 304 'Tis the design of Tragedy to excite Compassion in the Auditory. 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 242 The Fire in Lime burnt..lies hid..but Water excites it again. 1722 Wollaston Relig. Nat. iii. 55 A master may, by the exercises he sets, excite the superior capacity of his scholars. 1766 Fordyce Serm. Yng. Wom. (1767) I. iii. 103 Who can describe the detestation it excites? 1875 Jowett 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).
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vii. lxvii. (1495) 285 It is a generall medycyne to excyte spewynge. c 1400 Three Kings Cologne (1886) 122 Þe deuyll..excited..among þe pepil diuers opynyouns of heresy. 1576 Newton tr. Lemnie's Complex. (1633) 104 It is expedient to excite and cherish native heat with exercise. 1612 Enchir. Med. 111 Through a catarrhall distillation the cough is excited. 1704 Penn in Pa. Hist. Soc. Mem. IX. 341 Excite his return, or to send for his family to him. 1786 Gilpin Mount. & Lakes Cumbld. (1788) II. 60 Brass guns, for the purpose of exciting echoes. 1787 Winter Syst. Husb. 73 Heat..excites and promotes a motion in the fluids. 1797 Burke Regic. Peace iii. Wks. VIII. 303 They [the English ministry] did not excite the general confederacy in Europe. 1803 Phil. Trans. XCIII. 84 The bar..was melted in the strongest heat which could be excited. 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) II. vii. 176 [He] had..endeavoured to excite an insurrection in the eastern counties. 1860 Motley Netherl. (1868) I. v. 192 Fire-ships, intended only to excite a conflagration of the bridge. 1871 Blackie 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.
| 1831 Brewster 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. 1855 Bain Senses & Int. i. ii. §18 (1864) 51 Irritation or contact with a surface excites a single group of muscles in one way. 1875 Darwin 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.| 1821 P. 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. 1850 Thackeray 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]. 1886 L. 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. 1891 Punch CI. 121/2 ‘It excites me—it amuses me to talk to a cocher.’ 1968 Listener 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.
| 1646 Sir 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. 1827 Faraday Chem. Manip. xxiv. 631 Excite a glass rod by silk. 1839 G. 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. 1879 Cassell'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. 1913 Proc. 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]. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. XIII. 70/1 The electric arc is most suitable for exciting the line spectra of elements. 1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. XII. 581/1 Sources of radiation for spectrography are incandescent or electrically excited. |
| b. 1921 Chem. Abstr. XV. 1854 (heading) Observations on atoms excited by electron impact. 1934 H. 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. 1953 P. 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. 1969 Times 11 July 14/2 Radio signals emitted by helium atoms excited by the high temperatures in the interstellar gas clouds. |
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trans. To arouse (a person) sexually.
| 1879 Pearl Oct. 108 To handle, feel, and revel in such a luxuriously covered pussy and bottom, excited me more every moment. 1930 D. 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. 1959 M. Richler Apprenticeship Duddy Kravitz xii. 79 Gin excites them. Horseback riding gives them hot pants too. 1989 S. 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. |