stim·u·late

(stĭm′yə-lāt′)

v. stim·u·lat·ed, stim·u·lat·ing, stim·u·lates

v.tr.

1. To rouse to action or increased activity; excite: a policy that stimulated people to protest; incentives to stimulate consumer spending. See Synonyms at provoke.

2. To increase temporarily the activity of (a body organ or system, for example).

3. To cause to be interested or engaged: Animals in zoos need to be stimulated to remain healthy.

4. To cause to desire to have sex; arouse sexually.

5. To excite or invigorate (a person, for example) with a stimulant.

v.intr.

To act or serve as a stimulant or stimulus.

[Latin stimulāre, stimulāt-, to goad on, from stimulus, goad.]

stim′u·lat′er, stim′u·la′tor n.

stim′u·lat′ing·ly adv.

stim′u·la′tion n.

stim′u·la′tive, stim′u·la·to′ry (-lə-tôr′ē) adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

stimulated - emotionally aroused

stirred up, aroused, stirred

excited - in an aroused state

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References in classic literature

It only needed a persistent effort of thought, stimulated in this strange way by the crowd and the noise, to climb the crest of existence and see it all laid out once and for ever.

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Accustomed to ease, and unequal to the struggles incident to an infant society, the affluent emigrant was barely enabled to maintain his own rank by the weight of his personal superiority and acquirements; but, the moment that his head was laid in the grave, his indolent and comparatively uneducated offspring were compelled to yield precedency to the more active energies of a class whose exertions had been stimulated by necessity.

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When I said that you stimulated me I meant, to be frank, that in noting your fallacies I was occasionally guided towards the truth.

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But his unconscious training for literature began very early; in his childhood his love of poetry was stimulated by his mother, and he always spent much time in roaming about the country and picking up old ballads and traditional lore.

His instinct for literary production was first stimulated by the German Romantic poets.

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At that hour Phileas Fogg, having stimulated the engineer by the offer of a generous reward, at last set out towards London with Aouda and his faithful servant.

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They broke off at the least touch, and the waters that had stimulated their early growth carried their last vestiges out to sea.

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All, however, were lost upon the peaceful spirits of his hearers; not a Nez Perce was to be roused to vengeance, or stimulated to glorious war.

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Often, listening to the pilgrims' tales, she was so stimulated by their simple speech, mechanical to them but to her so full of deep meaning, that several times she was on the point of abandoning everything and running away from home.

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Levin saw that, stimulated by his conversation with the doctor, he wanted to talk.

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Actually was he hungry when he had megapode eggs, and the well-nigh dried founts of saliva and of internal digestive juices were stimulated to flow again at contemplation of a megapode egg prepared for the eating.

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The man who had spoken first, led the conversation, and indeed almost engrossed it, being only stimulated from time to time by some slight observation from one or other of his companions.

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