excite Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb arouse or elicit a feeling
  2. verb act as a stimulant
    stimulate.
    • The book stimulated her imagination
    • This play stimulates
  3. verb stir feelings in
    stir; stimulate.
    • stimulate my appetite
    • excite the audience
    • stir emotions
  4. verb cause to be agitated, excited, or roused
    commove; turn on; charge up; agitate; charge; rouse.
    • The speaker charged up the crowd with his inflammatory remarks
  5. verb stimulate sexually
    turn on; arouse; wind up; sex.
    • This movie usually arouses the male audience
  6. verb stir the feelings, emotions, or peace of
    stir; shake up; stimulate; shake.
    • These stories shook the community
    • the civil war shook the country
  7. verb raise to a higher energy level
    energise; energize.
    • excite the atoms
  8. verb produce a magnetic field in
    • excite the neurons

WordNet


Ex*cite" transitive verb
Etymology
L. excitare; ex out + citare to move rapidly, to rouse: cf. OF. esciter, exciter, F. exciter. See Cite.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Excited; present participle & verbal noun exciting
Definitions
  1. To call to activity in any way; to rouse to feeling; to kindle to passionate emotion; to stir up to combined or general activity; as, to excite a person, the spirits, the passions; to excite a mutiny or insurrection; to excite heat by friction.
  2. (Physiol.) To call forth or increase the vital activity of an organism, or any of its parts. Syn. -- To incite; awaken; animate; rouse or arouse; stimulate; inflame; irritate; provoke. -- To Excite, Incite. When we excite we rouse into action feelings which were less strong; when we incite we spur on or urge forward to a specific act or end. Demosthenes excited the passions of the Athenians against Philip, and thus incited the whole nation to unite in the war against him. Antony, by his speech over the body of Cæsar, so excited the feelings of the populace, that Brutus and his companions were compelled to flee from Rome; many however, were incited to join their standard, not only by love of liberty, but hopes of plunder.

Webster 1913