▪ I. animate, ppl. a. and n.
(ˈænɪmət)
[ad. L. animāt-us filled with life, also, disposed, inclined, f. animā-re to breathe, to quicken; f. anima air, breath, life, soul, mind.]
A. pple. and adj.
† 1. pple. Animated, inspired. Obs.
| a 1546 Elyot Let. in Governour (1836) 289, I am animate to importune your good lordship with most hearty desires. 1640 Canterbur. Self-Conv. Pref. 11 That..your Honours [may be] the more animate to deny your power. |
2. adj. Endowed with life, living, alive.
| 1605 Timme Quersit. ii. i. 102 Phylosophers..have affirmed the magnet or loadstone to be animate. 1610 Healey St. Aug., City of God viii. xxiii. (1620) 312 Statues, quoth he? Doe you not see them animate? 1667 Phil. Trans. II. 580 Corruption of Bodies Inanimat and Animat. 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. i. 34 Some of the Ancients..have..thought that the World was Animate. 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v., In mechanics, animate power is used to denote a man, or brute. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. (1875) I. i. ix. 147 The former history of the animate world. 1840 Carlyle Heroes (1846) 5 That men should have worshipped..stocks and stones, and all manner of animate and inanimate objects. |
3. Lively, having the full activity of life.
| 1801 Southey Thalaba vi. iii. Wks. IV. 220 A courser More animate of eye, Of form more faultless never had he seen. 1833 I. Taylor Fanat. iii. 59 The enthusiasm of the very meanest member of a warrior-clan is tenfold more animate. |
4. a. Pertaining to what is endowed with life; connected with animals.
| 1828 Kirby & Spence Entomol. I. iv. 94 Both animate diseases, but derived from two distinct species of animals. |
b. Gram. Denoting living beings.
| 1902 Amer. Anthropologist Jan.–Mar. 27 The distinction between animate and inanimate gender is still preserved in both Penobscot and Abenaki. 1939 S. C. Boyanus Spoken Russian ii. 5 The Accusative of masculine animate nouns is identical with the Genitive in the singular and plural. |
† B. n. That which has life, a living thing. Obs.
| 1642 H. More Song of Soul iii. xxviii, Magnetick might doth so combine Earth, Water, Air, into one animate. 1669 Gale Crt. Gentiles i. i. i. 5 The animate serves the animal. |
▪ II. animate, v.
(ˈænɪmeɪt)
[f. prec., or on analogy of vbs. so formed.]
I. To give life to, make alive or active.
1. trans. To breathe life into, endow with life, give life to or sustain in life, quicken, vivify.
| 1542 Boorde Dyetary xvi. 275 [Venison] doth anymate hym to be as he is..stronge and hardy. 1667 Milton P.L. viii. 151 Male and Femal Light, Which two great Sexes animate the World. 1736 Butler Anal. i. i. 25 We may hereafter animate these same or new bodies. 1794 G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Phil. IV. lii. 448 When the coals are animated by a pair of bellows. 1870 H. Macmillan Bible Teach. viii. 156 The breath of God animates his frame. |
2. To represent as alive, give the appearance of life to. arch.
| 1612 Brinsley Lud. Lit. xxi. (1627) 247 That we forget not to animate that which we remember by: that is, to conceive of it in our minde, as being lively and stirring. 1750 Johnson Rambl. No. 168 ¶5 Poetry, that force which..animates matter. 1776 Reynolds Disc. vii. (1876) 408 That Promethean fire, which animates the canvass and vivifies the marble. |
3. To impart liveliness, vividness, or interest to; to enliven.
| 1670 R. Flecknoe in Shaks. Cent. Praise 345 Much less inimitable Shakspears way, Promethian-like to animate a play. 1736 Butler Anal. ii. vii. 329 These might have animated a dull relation. 1737 Pope Horace's Ode iii. xxviii, Exalt the dance, and animate the song. 1833 I. Taylor Fanat. vi. 201 To have thrown off every sympathy with what animates the open world. |
† 4. To bring into active or legal operation. Obs.
| 1580 Sidney Arcad. (1622) 243 No small errour winkt at, least greater should bee animated. 1655 Lestrange Chas. I, 214 The Bill..having past both Houses was animated with the Royall assent. |
II. To give spirit, inspiration, or impulse.
5. trans. To fill with boldness, courage, spirit; to encourage, inspirit.
| 1538 Coverdale Ded. N.T. Wks. II. 24 It doth even animate and encourage me now likewise to use the same audacity. 1584 Whitgift in Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. 158 Such as animate them in their disobedience. 1607 Topsell Four-footed B. (1673) 107 The Dogs are animated by the winding of horns, and voices of the hunters. 1623 Cockeram, Animate, to encourage or hearten on. 1700 Dryden Mel. & Atal. 161 The shouting animates their hearts. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §294 The progress we had made this season could not fail to animate our further proceedings. 1839 J. Yeowell Anc. Brit. Ch. iii. (1847) 29 The few moments which preceded the decisive battle were employed..in animating his soldiers. |
† b. refl. Obs.
| 1547 Boorde Brev. Health clxxxiii. 65 Let every man, woman, or chylde animate them selfe upon God. |
† c. intr. To become animated, brighten up. Obs.
| 1779 F. Burney Diary (1842) I. 256 She..alternately softens and animates just like her. 1782 ― Cecilia i. vi. (1783) 79 Mr. Arnott, animating at this speech, glided behind her chair. |
6. trans. To move mentally, to excite to action of any kind; to inspire, actuate, incite, stir up.
| 1583 Exec. Treason (1675) 4 To animate them to continue their..wicked purposes. c 1590 Marlowe Massac. Paris ii. vi, Animated by religious zeal. 1598 Greenwey Tacitus, Ann. i. vii. (1622) 12 He..was thought to animate Drusus against the souldiers. 1658 Cromwell (Carlyle 1871) V. 119 Designs which are animated every day from Flanders and Spain. 1743 J. Morris Serm. iii. 74 The same spirit of opposition and cruelty animated the Gentiles. 1833 I. Taylor Fanat. x. 467 Those exalted motives which should animate virtue. 1877 Mozley Univ. Serm. i. 14 The motives which animated that wonderful and mysterious man. |
7. To actuate, move, or put in motion (a thing).
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 59 That extreme which is next the earth is animated unto the North, and the contrary unto the South. 1659 J. Leak Water-works 33 The Syphon..shall make the Air breath forth of it, and animate the two Organ Pipes. 1860 Tyndall Glac. ii. §1. 225 Motion..which animates the bullet projected from the gun. |
† 8. To impart any physical quality or virtue. Obs.
| 1605 Timme Quersit. i. iv. 15 Mercurie, sulphur, and salt..do animate and adorne it with their properties. |