▪ I. exciting, vbl. n.
(ɛkˈsaɪtɪŋ)
[f. excite v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb excite. Also an instance of it. † Phrase, at (of, by) exciting of: by the instigation of.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 133 At exitynge of quarta decimanorum þat helde Esterday þe xiiij⊇ day of þe mone Chedde was i-take. 1413 Lydg. Pilgr. Sowle i. ii. (1483) 3 Yf that my pylgrim hath ought done..of thyne excytyng. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vi. clxxxix. 192 A company of them, by the exityng of Hurkus..folowed the kynges hoost. 1525 Ld. Berners Froiss. II. xciii. [lxxxix.] 279 The chiefe excytyng of these maters came by the kynges uncles. 1626 Bacon Sylva §354 It must proceed..from the Quickning and Exciting of the Natural heat. 1652 G. Herbert Country Pars. xxii, Wanting many excitings of grace [when not attending the Communion]. |
▪ II. exciting, ppl. a.
(ɛkˈsaɪtɪŋ)
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
a. That excites. exciting cause: (chiefly Path.) that which immediately causes disease, etc.; opposed to predisposing cause.
| 1811 Hooper Med. Dict., Exciting cause. 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey v. xiii, Story after story..followed each other with exciting haste. 1834 Cycl. Pract. Med. III. 57/1 The exciting causes of hepatitis may be enumerated as follows. 1849 Ruskin Sev. Lamps i. §2. 9 Principles..exciting rather than directing. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 542 The public attention was occupied by other and far more exciting subjects. a 1871 Grote Eth. Fragm. i. (1876) 13 Certain acts and forbearances considered as the exciting cause of disposition on the part of others. |
b. That excites an electric current, a magnetic field, an atom, etc., a spectrum, or radioactivity.
| 1884 F. Krohn tr. Glaser de Cew's Magn.- & Dyn.-Electr. Mach. 218 When the thickness of the exciting coil is equal to the diameter of the iron core. 1914 [see excitation 5 a]. 1926 R. W. Lawson tr. Hevesy & Paneth's Man. Radioactivity v. 51 The initial velocity of the β-rays excited in matter by γ-rays is independent of the intensity of the γ-rays... On the other hand, the initial velocity is dependent on the hardness of the exciting γ-radiation. 1964 N. N. Hancock Matrix Analysis of Electr. Machinery viii. 113 All the exciting functions (i.e. applied voltages and currents). 1967 Condon & Odishaw Handbk. Physics (ed. 2) vi. vii. 145/1 Absorption of the exciting radiation..produces only excited Hg199 atoms. |
Hence exˈcitingly adv., in an exciting manner.
| 1860 in Worcester; and in mod. Dicts. |