excite
verb/ɪkˈsaɪt/
Etymology From Middle English exciten, from Old French exciter, from Latin excitō (“to call out, call forth, arouse, wake up, stimulate”), frequentative of excieō (“to call out, arouse, excite”), from ex (“out”) + cieō (“to call, summon”). See cite and compare to accite, concite, incite.
1
To stir the emotions of; to cause to feel excitement.
- The fireworks which opened the festivities excited anyone present.
2
To arouse or bring out (e.g. feelings); to stimulate.
- Favoritism tends to excite jealousy in the ones not being favored.
- The political reforms excited unrest among the population.
3 more examples
- Smugglers operating secretly so as not to excite suspicion.
- [S]he assured them […] that they had better follow her to a place of safety. They were at length excited, by her mere importunance to leave the room, and soon after the house.1840, Randolph Roscoe, The Emerald (page 53)
- [S]eint Poul seith and to the Romayns he hath writen that bi heeringe of swich ringinge men haven the feith perfytliche so that he putte not the ringinge in the scrippe but it exiteth the memorie in what manere men shulden bileeue[c. 1430, Guillaume de Deguileville, chapter LXXXXIX, in [anonymous], transl., edited by William Aldis Wright, The Pilgrimage of the Lyf of the Manhode. From the French (Cambridge University Library, MS Kk.1.7) (in Middle English), London: Printed for the Roxburghe Club; J[ohn] B[owyer] Nichols and Sons, […], published 1869, →OCLC, 1st part, folio 39, page 54:
3
Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics To cause an electron to move to a higher than normal state; to promote an electron to an outer level.
- By applying electric potential to the neon atoms, the electrons become excited, then emit a photon when returning to normal.
4
To energize (an electromagnet); to produce a magnetic field in.
- to excite a dynamo
- Derived terms
- deexcite, excitability, excitable, excitative, exciteful, excitive, exciton, excitosome, excitron, overexcite, photoexcite, preexcite, self-excite, sexcite, superexcite
- Related terms
- excitement, excitation