verb (used with object), ex·cit·ed, ex·cit·ing.
- to arouse or stir up the emotions or feelings of: to excite a person to anger; actions that excited his father’s wrath.
- to arouse or stir up (emotions or feelings): to excite jealousy or hatred.
- to cause; awaken: to excite interest or curiosity.
- to stir to action; provoke or stir up: to excite a dog by baiting him.
- Physiology. to stimulate: to excite a nerve.
- Electricity. to supply with electricity for producing electric activity or a magnetic field: to excite a dynamo.
- Physics. to raise (an atom, molecule, etc.) to an excited state.
verb (tr)
- to arouse (a person) to strong feeling, esp to pleasurable anticipation or nervous agitation
- to arouse or elicit (an emotion, response, etc); evokeher answers excited curiosity
- to cause or bring about; stir upto excite a rebellion
- to arouse sexually
- physiol to cause a response in or increase the activity of (an organ, tissue, or part); stimulate
- to raise (an atom, molecule, electron, nucleus, etc) from the ground state to a higher energy level
- to supply electricity to (the coils of a generator or motor) in order to create a magnetic field
- to supply a signal to a stage of an active electronic circuit
mid-14c., “to move, stir up, instigate,” from Old French esciter (12c.) or directly from Latin excitare “rouse, call out, summon forth, produce,” frequentative of exciere “call forth, instigate,” from ex- “out” (see ex-) + ciere “set in motion, call” (see cite). Of feelings, from late 14c. Of bodily organs or tissues, from 1831. Main modern sense of “emotionally agitate” is first attested 1821.